ISLAMABAD: The United Nations said Monday that massive floods in Pakistan had affected 13.8 million people and eclipsed the scale of the devastating 2004 tsunami, as anger mounted among survivors.
The Pakistani government and U.N. officials have appealed for more urgent relief efforts to cope with the worst floods in more than 80 years, with President Asif Ali Zardari due to return home after a heavily criticized European tour.
The entire northwestern Swat valley, where Pakistan fought a major campaign to flush out Taliban insurgents last year, was cut off at the weekend as were parts of the country's breadbasket in Punjab and Sindh.
"This disaster is worse than the tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and the Haiti earthquake," Maurizio Giuliano, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
He said the 13.8 million affected outstripped the more than three million hit by the 2005 earthquake, five million in the tsunami and the three million affected by the Haiti earthquake.
The United Nations estimates 1,600 people have died in Pakistan's floods. About 220,000 were killed by the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia.
Martin Mogwanja, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Pakistan, called on relief operations "to be massively scaled up."
"Millions of people have suffered and still there is more rain and further losses are feared. I appeal to the world to help us," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters.
"Millions of people have suffered and still there is more rain and further losses are feared. I appeal to the world to help us," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters.
Foreign donors including the United States have pledged tens of millions of dollars in aid but, on the ground, Islamic charities with suspected extremist links have been far more visible in the relief effort than the government.
