Metro News
Children among more than 1,000 people killed by Pakistan monsoon rains and floods
Severe rains and flooding have killed at least 1,033 people, including 348 children, and left 1,527 more injured in Pakistan since mid-June, officials said on Sunday.
The country’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) added that 119 people had died and 71 injured in the last 24 hours alone.
According to CNN, at least 33 million people have been affected by the disaster, Pakistan’s Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman said on Thursday. She called the floods “unprecedented” and “the worst humanitarian disaster of this decade.”
“Pakistan is going through its eighth cycle of monsoon while normally the country has only three to four cycles of rain,” Rehman said. “The percentages of super flood torrents are shocking.”
She highlighted in particular the impact on the south of the country, adding that “maximum” relief efforts are underway.
The deployment of the army was authorized to assist with relief and rescue operations in flood-stricken areas, the country’s Ministry of Interior said in a statement on Friday.
The ministry said troops would assist Pakistan’s four provincial governments, including the worst-hit southwestern province of Balochistan.
The exact number of troops as well as where and when they would be deployed would be worked out between the provinces and the government, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, flood relief centers are being established in various parts of the country to assist collection, transportation and distribution of flood relief goods to victims, the Pakistan Armed Forces said.
Army troops are also helping people evacuate to safer places, providing shelter, meals and providing medical care to those affected by the floods, the armed forces said.
The southern province of Sindh, which has been badly hit by the flooding, has asked for 1 million tents, while nearby Balochistan province — largely cut off from electricity, gas and the internet — has requested 100,000 tents, Rehman said.
“Pakistan’s priority, at the moment, is this climate-induced humanitarian disaster of epic proportions,” Rehman said, urging the international community to provide aid given Pakistan’s “limited” resources.
On Friday, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Sharif briefed international diplomats on the crisis, stating that his country — on the front line of climate change despite a relatively small carbon footprint — must focus its rehabilitation toward greater climate change resilience.
Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal separately told Reuters that 30 million people had been affected, a figure that would represent about 15% of the South Asian country’s population.
UN agency Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in an update on Thursday that the monsoon rains had affected some 3 million people in Pakistan, of whom 184,000 have been displaced to relief camps across the country.
Funding and reconstruction efforts will be a challenge for cash-strapped Pakistan, which is having to cut spending to ensure that the International Monetary Fund approves the release of much-needed bailout money.
The NDMA said in a report that in the past 24 hours, 150 kilometers (about 93 miles) of roads had been damaged across the country and more than 82,000 homes partially or fully damaged.
Since mid-June, when the monsoon began, more than 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) of road, 130 bridges and 495,000 homes have been damaged, according to NDMA’s last situation report, figures also echoed in the OHCA report.
The Rivers state Police command says four people and over 70 vehicles were burnt in Friday’s fuel tanker explosion in the state.
The explosion occurred along Eleme section of the East-West Road in the state at about 7:30 p.m.
SP Grace Iringe-Koko, spokesman of command, who confirmed the sad incident in Port Harcourt on Saturday, said that the tragedy occurred following a collision between a heavy-duty truck and a petrol-laden tanker.
At the scene of the accident, there were seveal burnt vehicles and charred bodies of victims on the road.
The incident happened a few metres from the Indorama Petrochemical Company and roughly 10 kilometres from the Port Harcourt Refinery.
There was an extensive gridlock stretching over five kilometres on the road under reconstruction as part of the N200 billion Ring Road project by the Rivers Government.
State government trucks, accompanied by police and Federal Road Safety Commission officials, were seen evacuating the burnt vehicles to facilitate traffic flow.
An eyewitness, Onyeka Ubani, who narrowly escaped the explosion, said that while transporting passengers on his newly acquired tricycle (Keke), they heard a deafening sound ahead of them.
“The loud sound was followed by a massive fireball, causing everyone to flee for safety.
“We managed to escape, but unfortunately, my Keke caught fire in the process.
“I thank God for my life, but I am at a loss about what to do with my life now, having recently purchased this Keke,” a distraught Ubani said.
Another eyewitness, David Jumbo, said that he was returning home from work around the Akpajo axis of the East-West Road when the incident occurred.
He narrated that after the explosion, vehicles and victims were caught by fire, which stretched over 200 metres.
“It happened so quickly that it could be likened to scenes from Hollywood movies.
“While I was fleeing for safety, I saw a pregnant woman struggling to exit one of the commercial vehicles.
“Unfortunately, when I returned this morning, I found the deceased pregnant woman trapped in the bus as she tried to escape,” he recounted.
Jumbo attributed the accident to the recklessness of truck drivers, who disregarded road warnings despite the ongoing road construction.
Gov. Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers, who visited the accident scene, described it as tragic and sad.
He urged motorists to always exercise caution while on the road.
“This incident is not a pleasant one, we recorded a huge number of vehicles destroyed and lives lost.
“I have already asked the relevant agencies to brief us on how we can support the bereaved families to mitigate their losses.
“This incident would have been avoided if the motorists had adhered to proper conduct. People should ply this road with caution,” Fubara said.
Siminalayi Fubara, governor of Rivers, says the state government will support he families of victims affected by the multiple tanker explosion.
Fubara spoke on Saturday when he visited the scene of the accident alongside Olatunji Disu, commissioner for police in Rivers, and Maximus Nwafor, commissioner for energy.
On Friday night, tankers laden with petroleum products burst into flames on a section of the East-West road in Eleme, Rivers state, leaving an unspecified number of people killed.
The inferno which had also left travellers stranded for hours, engulfed over 50 vehicles, with some bodies found burnt beyond recognition in cars and in a nearby drainage.
The governor directed security agencies to conduct a thorough assessment of the accident to facilitate the provision of aid to families of victims.
“Yesterday around 7-8pm, we got information about a very serious inferno that was caused by a tanker conveying PMS,” he said.
“I got the information through the MD of Indorama and immediately alerted the security agencies. From what we are seeing this morning, it was not a very pleasant case.
“We recorded, from what I am seeing, a huge number of vehicles being destroyed and souls lost.
“I have already asked the security agencies to give us a full brief. So that we can come into the situation fully by seeing how much we can support the families of the bereaved and see how we can cushion the effect of the losses.”
The governor also lamented the deteriorating condition of the Eleme section of the East-West road.
“We all know the situation of this road; it is unfortunate. Most of our people when plying this road do so with caution,” he added.
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