Meer humanitaire financiering voor slachtoffers van overstromingen en conflicten Pakistan (en)

Brussels, 30 April 2012 - The European Commission is giving an additional €20 million to assist victims of last year's monsoon floods in Pakistan and people displaced by recent military interventions. This will provide shelter, food, healthcare, clean water and sanitation. It brings the Commission's 2012 humanitarian funding to Pakistan to €55 million.

"The 2010 and 2011 floods galvanised the international community but we must not forget that millions of people are still struggling to recover, especially in the province of Sindh. So we are extending a helping hand.," said Kristalina Georgieva, the European Union Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response.

"We also need to react quickly to help more than forty thousand displaced families in Khyber, Pakhtunkhwa province - including a significant number of vulnerable families headed by women. Around 300,000 displaced people in the region need urgent assistance," Commissioner Georgieva added.

Natural disasters and conflicts produce overlapping humanitarian crises in Pakistan. The country was hit by severe floods in the summer of 2011, affecting 5.8 million people. The floodwaters killed livestock, destroyed crops, homes and infrastructure, homes.

People were still struggling to recover from the record floods of 2010 when they were hit again. Sindh province was hit particularly hard: 72% of households don't have enough food and the level of malnutrition in children under five has spiked above the critical emergency thresholds.

Conflicts linked to military interventions against insurgents in the Federally Administered Tribal Agency (FATA) of Khyber, have triggered new waves of population displacement, most recently in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The number of displaced people exceeds 300,000. Nearly a million peole have been displaced by military operations and sectarian violence in FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Background

In 2011 the European Commission gave €94.9 million to Pakistan in response to emergency needs triggered by flooding, conflict and the needs of Afghan refugees in the country.

The European Commission supports long-term programmes to help Pakistan's most vulnerable people including those who depend on agriculture and livestock for their survival. The Commission has given € 68 million from its development budget to support agricultural activities and flood recovery. € 90 million will soon be made available for community development and resilience-building in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The European Union's total assistance for Pakistan (including the contributions of the Commission and those of Member States) amounts to € 2,458 billion for the period 2009 -2013. This represents around 30 % of the total annual development assistance to the country.

For more information:

Commissioner Georgieva's website:

http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/georgieva/index_en.htm

The European Commission's humanitarian aid and civil protection:

http://ec.europa.eu/echo/index_en.htm