The Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development are each increasing their pledges of assistance from 500,000 euro to 1 million euro, bringing aid to a total of 2 million euro.

In the last few days, it has been confirmed that the scale of the damage and the number of people affected are larger than initially thought. More than 4 million people across the country are directly affected by the devastating impact of the floods. What is most urgently needed is food, drinking water, tents as well as general medical care. The newly pledged funds will be used to help meet these needs. The Government of Pakistan yesterday thanked the international community for what it has done but also asked for further assistance.

The German Government was quick to send assistance and so far in 2010 alone has granted 6.6 million euro of humanitarian assistance to Pakistan (Federal Foreign Office: 4.1 million euro, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development: 2.5 million euro). In the first half of the year, the focus, as in 2009, was on providing assistance for the people in need who had fled the armed conflict between the Taliban and the Pakistan Army in the north-west of the country.

What is more, Germany is providing a share of 6 million euro of the humanitarian assistance provided for Pakistan by the European Commission so far this year.

All in all, the German Government has made available a total of 140 million euro for Pakistan for development cooperation and stabilizing measures for the period 2009/2010. Development cooperation focuses primarily on good governance, education, energy and health.

This means Germany remains one of Pakistan’s strongest partners whether in cases of emergency or when it comes to the long-term stabilization and development of the country