UAE expresses solidarity with flood-hit European countries
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation expresses its sincere condolences and sympathy to the governments and the families of the victims, wishing a speedy recovery to all those affected
The UAE has expressed its solidarity with Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg over the loss of life caused by floods.
In a statement on Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation expressed its sincere condolences and sympathy to the governments and the families of the victims, wishing a speedy recovery to all those affected.
Meanwhile, Oman has expressed its sympathy with Germany, Belgium and the Netherland, and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, over the loss of life due to recent floods, according to Oman News Agency (ONA).
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its sincere condolences and sympathy to the governments and the families of the victims, wishing a speedy recovery to all those affected.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday that she was horrified by the “surreal” devastation in the flood-ravaged region of western Germany, as the toll in Germany and Belgium climbed to 190 with dozens of people still missing.
Wearing hiking boots and offering pandemicsafe fist bumps to rescue workers, the veteran leader walked through the village of Schuld in Rhineland-palatinate state, one of the two hardest-hit regions in western Germany.
Merkel, who is retiring from politics ater September’s elections, listened to the accounts of residents where the swollen Ahr river swept away houses and let debris piled high in the streets.
“It is a surreal, eerie situation,” a visibly shaken Merkel told reporters, as she pledged quick aid to rebuild.
“It is shocking — I can almost say that the German language doesn’t have words for the destruction that’s been wreaked.”
At least 165 people have died since Wednesday in Germany’s worst flooding in living memory, police said.
Merkel was accompanied by Malu Dreyer, premier of Rhineland-palatinate state which has recorded 112 fatalities.
As they navigated damaged roads together, the chancellor gripped the hand of Dreyer, who has multiple sclerosis, to support her.
At least 31 people have lost their lives in neighbouring Belgium. Heavy rainfall has also batered Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
In Austria, residents in the scenic town of Hallein were cleaning up the muddy atermath ater streets were submerged on Saturday.
German rescue crews were siting through rubble to find victims and survivors, oten in dangerous conditions. Police deployed helicopters, speedboats and divers to search for bodies.
As the waters began to recede in RhinelandPalatinate and neighbouring North-rhine Westphalia (NRW), concern shited south to Germany’s Upper Bavaria region, where torrential rains inundated basements and led rivers and creeks late on Saturday to burst their banks.
One person died in Berchtesgadener Land, with more rain expected later on Sunday.
In the eastern state of Saxony, authorities reported a “significant risk situation” in several villages.
German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz pledged more than 300 million euros ($354 million) in emergency aid for people who lost homes and businesses, with the cabinet to approve a much larger reconstruction package on Wednesday.
The disaster has increasingly taken on political overtones in Germany, which heads to the polls on Sept.26 for a general election that will mark the end of Merkel’s 16 years in power.
With experts saying climate change is making extreme weather events more likely, Merkel said leaders “must hurry” to batle global warming.
Armin Laschet, the premier of North-rhine Westphalia state and frontrunner in the race to succeed Merkel, has also said efforts to tackle global warming should be “speeded up.”
But Laschet scored an own goal Saturday when he was filmed laughing in the devastated town of Ertstadt in NRW, as President Frank-walter Steinmeier was giving a statement expressing his sympathies to grieving families. Laschet later apologised.
As the shock over the severe death toll set in, the German association of cities and towns called for “significant reinforcements” to emergency preparedness and early warning systems.