Jolie: Floods a wake-up call
HOLLYWOOD star and humanitarian Angelina Jolie said the flood disaster in Pakistan should be a “wake-up call” for the world regarding climate change, calling for more international aid after meeting with victims.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Jolie, who previously visited Pakistan to meet the victims of the devastating 2010 floods and a deadly 2005 earthquake, in footage released last Thursday (22).
“I am absolutely with you in pushing the international community to do more... I think this is a real wake-up call to the world about where we are at,” she told a meeting of civil
and military officials in the capital Islamabad. “Climate change is not only real and it’s not only coming, it’s very much here.”
Jolie, who represents the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, visited southern Sindh, one of the worst-affected areas, where she met with displaced flood victims living in camps.
The United Nations has warned of a “second disaster” from diseases such as dengue, malaria, cholera and diarrhoea, as well as from malnutrition.
“I have been speaking to people and thinking that if enough aid doesn’t come, they won’t be here in the next few weeks, they won’t make it,” said Jolie.