Floods in Pakistan: China announces 100m Yuan aid

ISLAMABAD: China has announced financial assistance of 100 million Yuan for Pakistan, affected by flash floods, which have left thousands marooned since mid-June, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

The financial assistance was announced in a message delivered by Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong to President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

In the message, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have expressed grief and solidarity with the Pakistani leadership and people over human and financial losses caused by floods in the country.

China announced an assistance grant of 100 million Yuan, besides the dispatch of 25,000 tents and other assistance items. The first batch of relief aid containing 300 tents would arrive in Karachi today. The Chinese ambassador would hand over these articles to the Pakistani authorities.

President Xi, in a message to President Dr Arif Alvi, observed that severe floods had occurred recently in Pakistan, causing heavy casualties and serious property losses.

President Xi, on behalf of the Chinese government and people, and in his own name, expressed deep condolences over the victims and sincere sympathy to the bereaved families, the injured and the people in the affected areas.

The Chinese envoy had apprised the Government of Pakistan of the decision of the Chinese leadership about the relief support.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif expressed gratitude to the Chinese leadership and said that the Chinese leadership and the people of China had always supported the people of Pakistan with their generosity.

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A day earlier, it was reported that tens of millions of people across swathes of Pakistan were battling the worst monsoon floods in a decade, with countless homes washed away, vital farmland destroyed, and the country’s main river threatening to burst its banks.

Officials say 1,061 people have died since June when the seasonal rains began, but the final toll could be higher as hundreds of villages in the mountainous north have been cut off after flood-swollen rivers washed away roads and bridges.