Pakistan’s armed forces rescue 2,000 people marooned by floods

Flooded residential areas in Dera Allah Yar town, Jaffarabad district, Balochistan province Thursday. Pic/AFP

Pakistan's armed forces have rescued a further 2,000 people stranded by rising floodwaters, they said on Friday, in a disaster blamed on climate change that has swamped about a third of the South Asian nation and is still growing.

Record monsoon rain and melting glaciers in the northern mountains brought floods that have killed at least 1,208 people, including 416 children, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said.

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In the Dadu district of Sindh, one of the worst-affected provinces, several villages were under as much as 11 feet (3.35 m) of water, according to Bashir Khan, a resident. "My house is under water, I had left my place four days ago with my family," he said.

The navy airlifted more than 150 people from Dadu on Thursday, it said in a statement. On Friday, the military said it had evacuated about 50,000 people, including 1,000 by air, since rescues began. "During the past 24 hours, 1,991 stranded individuals have been evacuated," the armed forces said in a statement, adding that nearly 163 tonnes of relief supplies had also been delivered to the flood-affected.

Also Read: Floods wreak havoc in Pakistan, death toll reaches near 1,200

‘Many more children may die'

The United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) said on Friday there was a risk of "many more" child deaths in Pakistan from disease after floods. The toll for children, estimated at 416 by national authorities, represents around a third of the total people killed. There is now a high risk of water-borne, deadly diseases spreading rapidly - diarrhoea, cholera, dengue, malaria," UNICEF Pakistan Representative Abdullah Fadil said. "There is therefore a risk of many more child deaths," he said.

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