Nobel laureate visits Pakistan's flood-stricken areas

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai, visited a shelter camp in southern Pakistan on Wednesday to meet victims of last month's devastating floods, which inundated a third of the country.

Yousafzai, who is currently visiting her home country, arrived at a "tent city" in Johi town of southern Sindh province, the hardest-hit region by the super floods, to meet with the displaced people, said an official statement.

Aside from interacting with flood-affected women, she also attended a girls' primary school established in a tent at the temporary housing facility.

Yousafzai, who is also the “UN Messenger of Peace” with a special focus on girls’ education, is visiting Pakistan to assess the current situation in different parts of the country that has been battered by recent devastating rains and floods.

She is visiting her home country after four years, and a second time after she survived a terrorist attack in 2012 in Swat valley by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a conglomerate of different militant groups.

The last time, she briefly visited her hometown Swat in March 2018.

Yousafzai, now 25, was attacked by TTP militants for her role in advocating for girls' education in the region, which faced militancy and a restriction on women's education over a decade ago.

In Dec 2014, she shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Indian child rights activist Kailash Sathyarthi, making her the youngest-ever laureate.

- Flood-related losses and damages

A combination of torrential rains – 10 times heavier than usual – and apocalyptic floods have killed nearly 1,700 people across Pakistan since mid-June, aside from inundating a third of the country.

The colossal devastation will also cost $30 billion to fix, according to government estimates.
The drenching monsoon, combined with massive floods, has damaged approximately 45% of the country's cropland, posing a serious threat to food security.

Monsoon spells often cause devastation across South Asia region, but climate change and global warming have increased their ferocity and unpredictability in recent years.