The floods caused great damage to families and infrastructure in Yemen, while Pakistan announced today, Thursday, the number of victims of the floods that have continued for more than two months, amid preparing for a new wave of rain in the southern regions.

The United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs in Yemen said that the heavy rains and torrential rains that swept the country during the past weeks affected 51,000 families, most of whom were displaced.

The United Nations office added in a report that the governorates of Marib and Hajjah were the most affected, while assessments were not completed in the rest of the affected areas.

The report indicated that heavy rains and torrential rains damaged homes and infrastructure. 

Yemen witnessed a wave of torrential rains that caused significant damage to homes and infrastructure (Anadolu Agency)

stricken country

In Pakistan, the Pakistani Minister of Environment, Sherry Rehman, said that about two thousand people have died due to the floods that have been going on for nine weeks across the country.

Rahman indicated that more than one million homes were destroyed, in whole or in part, and about 250 bridges.

 According to the minister, Sindh province has been subjected to heavy rains that exceeded average rates during the past three decades.

The Pakistani authorities have declared a state of alert after expectations of more rain and floods in the southern regions.

Southern Pakistan is bracing for more floods on Thursday as a torrent of water flows into the Indus River, adding to the devastation in a country already in the grip of a disaster blamed on climate change.

"We are on a high level of alert, because the water flowing into the river from the northern floods is expected to enter the province during the next few days," said Sindh provincial government spokesman Murtaza Wahab.

Wahab added that the flow of about 600,000 cubic feet per second is expected to raise the water level of the Indus River and test its ability to absorb floods.


record levels

Pakistan has seen an increase of 190 percent over the average in the last 30 years.

The province of Sindh - which has a population of 50 million people - was the most affected, increasing 466% from the average during the last thirty years.

Parts of the province are inundated with water, and hundreds of families have taken to roads, which have become the only dry land for many of them.

The floods washed away homes, businesses, infrastructure and roads, destroyed cultivated and stored crops, and inundated nearly two million acres of farmland.

The National Disaster Management Authority said that about 480,30 people have been displaced to the camps, but even those who did not have to leave their homes are in danger.

international appeal

The United Nations Children's Fund has warned that "more than 3 million children are in need of humanitarian assistance and are at increased risk of water-borne diseases, drowning and malnutrition due to the worst floods in Pakistan's modern history."

The United Nations has called for $160 million to help in what it described as an "unprecedented climate catastrophe".

The World Health Organization said more than 6.4 million people are in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

Aid began arriving on planes loaded with food, tents and medicine.