[Al Arabiya Latest] Nearly half the $460 million needed for initial relief in Pakistan's worst ever floods has been secured after days of lobbying donors and warnings that the country faces a spiraling humanitarian catastrophe™, the United Nations said on Wednesday."Humanitarian catastrophe™" seems to be losing it's allure to donors, sir.
Okay. Make it a "spiraling humanitarian catastrophe™" and see how that goes over.
Very good, sir. More wine?
"There has been an improvement in funding. Donors are realizing the scale of the disaster," U.N. spokesman Maurizio Giuliano told Reuters. "But the challenges are absolutely massive and the floods are not over."
"The size of (the area affected by) this disaster is equivalent to Austria, Switzerland and Belgium combined. That's pretty scary."
...and pretty expensive. God knows how many mobile five star restaurants we'll have to set up to support our staff.
The European Union, meanwhile, announced Wednesday that it would provide an additional 30 million euros ($39 million) in emergency relief assistance to Pakistan, bringing its total aid to 70 million euros.