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A Pakistani boy displaced by floods waits along a road for relief goods in Khan Garh, Muzzafargarh district, Punjab province, Pakistan. AARON FAVILA/AP/Press Association Images
Pakistan

Pakistan prepares for next barrage of floods

UN says 10 million people are without shelter as floods continue to strike Pakistan. But that’s not stopping the Taliban.

THE UN SAYS THAT 10 million people are now without shelter in Pakistan following the continuing flood disaster across the country.

The UN has termed the floods “one of the worst humanitarian disasters in UN history, in terms of number of people that we have to assist and also the area covered,” AFP reports.

Almost 21 million people have been affected by the flooding, which continues to dog the southern parts of Pakistan.

The United Nations has set up around 1,200 mobile health clinics to help prevent and treat water borne diseases. Some 65,000 cases of malaria have already been reported.

The humanitarian organisation continues to call for emergency funding pledged to Pakistan to be delivered, as just $320m of the $460m called for has been provided by donors.

Actress Angelina Jolie is currently on a two-day trip to Pakistan with UNHCR to highlight the problems facing flood victims. The Salt star met with Afghan refugees today who were forced to flee their camp in the north when the waters rose.

Fight against floods

Six weeks after the monsoon floods first arrived, towns in the south are fighting to prevent catastrophic flooding, DAWN reports.

A local official said that the army is involved in a race against time to reinforce river embankments under pressure from swollen waters. Locals have formed a human chain as they work to bolster the embankment.

Militant struggle

Rebuilding Pakistan is essential in supporting the country’s struggle against Taliban militants in the north, according to the New York Review of Books. The journal warns that growing Taliban extremism could allow insurgents to gain a stronghold.

Four Taliban bomb attacks in the past five days have killed over 100 people. The militants targeted Shia Muslim processions, marches and mosques at the start of this month, and killed 19 people in a suicide bomb attack on a police station yesterday.

Sixteen people were killed in another police station attack today. Claiming responsibility for Monday’s attack, the Taliban said that it was prepared to continue targeting Pakistani security forces with suicide bombers:

We will continue suicide attacks on security forces. Civilians should avoid proximity with them.