ISLAMABAD: The United Nations has allocated $5 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support Pakistan’s response efforts to the ongoing devastating floods, UN Secretary General’s Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said this week.
Floods in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province have killed 63 people and affected over four million people since late August, provincial authorities have said. Deluges have destroyed swathes of farmland and crops in the country, pushing up food prices and threatening inflation.
Last month, Dujarric confirmed the UN had released $600,000 in emergency relief funds for Pakistan, as floods now flow downstream into the southern Sindh province and cause similar destruction.
“On Pakistan, where our humanitarian colleagues are working hand-in-hand with the Government, yesterday, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, allocated $5 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support the response to the floods that continue to hit and devastate many parts of the country,” Dujarric told a news conference on Monday.
He said the latest funds complement the $600,000 allocation from the UN, as well as the $250,000 allocated from the Pakistan Country-Based Pooled Fund for local NGOs by the UN.
