Saudi Arabia operates relief air bridge to Pakistan to ease impact of devastating floods
The second batch of Saudi relief aid arrived in flood-hit Pakistan Wednesday morning, local media reported, after the Kingdom operated a relief air bridge to ease the impact of the devastating floods that have affected millions of people.
The second batch arrived in Karachi’s airport in the presence of Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Pakistan Nawaf bin Saeed Al-Malki after the first of such aid landed in the country Tuesday.
The first airplane carried more than “90 tons of food, shelter and health aid, that benefits more than to 9,500 people affected [by the floods],” the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
The relief assistance to Pakistan, which has been reeling under the impact of torrential rains and glacier melt that have triggered destructive floods, causing damage estimated at $30 billion, was sent to the country by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) under the orders of King Salman bin Abdulaziz.
Speaking at the airport Wednesday, KSrelief Pakistan director Dr. Khalid al-Othmani said that airplane “was the second batch out of 10 that seeks to provide assistance to those affected by the floods in Pakistan as part of the air bridge that the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques has ordered.”
Al-Othmani added that the second batch also included 90 tons of various means of assistance and shelter aid that will distributed to the affected areas in coordination with the Pakistani government.
He also noted that this assistance coincides with land convoys being launched from Islamabad to those areas and that carry relief and shelter aid.