Category Archives: South and Central Asia

IMF offers Sri Lanka provisional $2.9bn loan to tackle debt crisis

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Funding still needs to be approved but could offer breathing space amid country’s economic turmoil

The International Monetary Fund has tentatively offered Sri Lanka a $2.9bn (£2.5bn) loan to help the country recover from the worst economic crisis since it gained independence from Britain in 1948.

The funding is meant to provide some breathing space for Sri Lanka, which is scrambling to restructure nearly $30bn in debt to creditors including China, India and a string of international banks.

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Health officials warn of major outbreaks of disease after severe floods in Pakistan

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Diarrhoea and malaria cases spread, with risk of dysentery and cholera, as millions of displaced people forced to drink flood water

Health officials have warned of large-scale outbreaks of disease in Pakistan after severe flooding displaced millions of people.

A rise in cases of diarrhoea and malaria has been reported after months of heavy rains left people stranded and without access to clean water.

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Pakistan floods: before-and-after images show extent of devastation

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More than 1,100 people have been killed in flooding described by Pakistan PM Shebaz Sharif as worst in country’s history

New satellite images show the extent of the devastation caused by catastrophic flooding and rains in Pakistan.

The images, from Planet Labs and Maxar, show swaths of green fields, villages and buildings before monsoonal rains and flooding began lashing the country in June.

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Pakistan not to blame for climate crisis-fuelled flooding, says PM Shehbaz Sharif

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Sharif’s climate change minister called the flooding a ‘climate catastrophe’ and said the south Asian nation was ‘paying the price’ for western use of fossil fuels

Pakistan is not to blame for a climate crisis-fuelled disaster that has flooded much of the country, the prime minister has said, as he made a desperate plea for international help in what he said was the “toughest moment” in the nation’s history.

“We are suffering from it but it is not our fault at all,” Shehbaz Sharif told journalists on Tuesday afternoon at a press conference where his climate change minister referred to the flooding as a “climate catastrophe”.

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UN and Pakistan appeal for $160m to help flooding victims

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Call for emergency funding as nearly half a million people displaced and estimated $10bn damage to economy

The United Nations and Pakistan are to appeal for $160m (£135m) in emergency funding for the nearly half a million people displaced by record-breaking floods that have killed more than 1,150 people since mid-June.

Large areas remain underwater and more than 33 million people, or one in seven Pakistanis, have been affected by the floods. Rescuers have been evacuating stranded people to safer ground.

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‘Monster monsoon’: why the floods in Pakistan are so devastating

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The climate crisis is the prime suspect, but the vulnerability of poor citizens and other factors are important too

The climate crisis is the prime suspect for the devastating scale of flooding in Pakistan, which has killed more than 1,000 people and affected 30 million. But the catastrophe, still unfolding, is most likely the result of a lethal combination of factors including the vulnerability of poor citizens, steep mountainous slopes in some regions, the unexpected destruction of embankments and dams, and some natural climate variation.

The horrific scale of the floods are not in doubt. “We are witnessing the worst flooding in the history of the country,” said Dr Fahad Saeed, a climate scientist with the Climate Analytics group, who is based in Islamabad.

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Pakistan: fears for areas cut off by floods as damage to roads hampers relief effort

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PM vows government will not disappoint flood victims as economic losses estimated at more than $10bn

There are growing fears for people living in communities in Pakistan cut off by devastating flooding caused by unusually strong monsoon rains, as damage to major roads hampers the military-led relief effort.

On a visit to a badly flooded area in the north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday, the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, described the rains as “unprecedented in the last 30 years”. “I have never seen such devastation in my life,” he said, vowing that his government “won’t disappoint” flood victims.

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Pakistan floods: plea for help amid fears monsoon could put a third of country underwater

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Foreign minister urges countries and IMF to help stricken country after climate change minister speaks of climate ‘catastrophe’

Pakistan’s government has appealed for international help to tackle a flooding emergency that has killed more than 1,000 people and threatens to leave a third of the country – an area roughly the size of Britain – underwater.

Foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Sunday night that floods brought on by weeks of extreme monsoonal rainfall and melting glaciers would worsen Pakistan’s already dire economic situation and that financial aid was needed.

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India accuses China of ‘militarisation of the Taiwan Strait’ as row over navy vessel grows

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Accusation is reportedly the first time the Indian government has used the descriptor and comes as tensions rise over Sri Lanka port visit

India has accused China of “militarisation of the Taiwan Strait”, in an escalating war of words triggered by a Chinese military ship docking in a controversial Sri Lankan port.

The accusation, referenced in a statement by the Indian high commission in Sri Lanka on Sunday, is reportedly the first time the Indian government has used the descriptor, and is a rare intervention on the cross-straits issues as India contends with tensions on its own border with China.

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‘People are getting sick’: destitution in flood-hit Pakistan

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With their homes destroyed by worst flooding in living memory, people in Jaffarabad appeal for help

In the midst of swamps of flood water, hundreds of people who fled one of the worst-hit districts of Pakistan pitched tents on the only high ground they could find – on the raised banks of the Saifullah Magsi canal.

They had left the Jaffarabad region of Pakistan’s impoverished Balochistan province as a monsoon deluge that authorities say has claimed more than 1,000 lives since June swept away their homes and livelihoods. The Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, visiting Jaffarabad on Sunday, was told that at least 75% of Balochistan, which covers half of Pakistan’s land area, was partially or completely affected by flooding.

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Families flee as India demolishes 100-metre towers outside Delhi

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Court-ordered demolition of 850 flats seen as stern warning to developers amid rampant illegal construction

Indian authorities have demolished two illegally constructed skyscrapers in a wide plume of dust debris outside Delhi, razing the tallest structures ever pulled down in the country in less than 10 seconds.

Crowds watching the collapse from rooftops on nearby high-rise buildings cheered and clapped as the 103 metre (338ft) tall towers collapsed during a controlled demolition.

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Pakistan declares floods a ‘climate catastrophe’ as death toll tops 1,000

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Flash flooding from ‘monster monsoon’ washes away villages and crops and leaves thousands homeless

A Pakistani minister has called the country’s deadly monsoon season “a serious climate catastrophe” and “a climate dystopia at our doorstep” as officials said deaths from widespread flooding in Pakistan had passed 1,000 since mid-June.

Flash floods, which have intensified in recent days, have swept away villages, roads, bridges, people, livestock and crops across all four provinces. Pakistan has appealed for international help as soldiers and rescue workers have evacuated stranded people to relief camps and provided food to thousands of displaced people.

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Protests in India over release of 11 men jailed for gang rape

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Demonstrators demand Gujarat government revoke decision on men convicted over rape of Muslim woman Bilkis Bano in 2002

Hundreds of people have held demonstrations in several parts of India to protest against a recent government decision to free 11 men who had been jailed for life for gang raping a Muslim woman during India’s 2002 religious riots.

The protesters in the country’s capital, New Delhi, chanted slogans on Saturday and demanded the government in the western state of Gujarat rescind the decision. They also sang songs in solidarity with the victim.

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Pakistan floods death toll passes 1,000, say officials

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More than 33 million people have been displaced as destructive monsoon rains continue to wreak havoc

Flash floods triggered by destructive monsoon rains across much of Pakistan have killed more than 1,000 people and injured and displaced thousands more since June, officials have said.

The new death toll came a day after the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, asked for international help in battling deadly flood damage. More than 33 million people have been displaced.

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Pakistan declares emergency as floods hit over 30 million people

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Authorities say more than 900 killed and 220,000 homes destroyed in worst monsoon rains disaster for a decade

Heavy rain has pounded large areas of Pakistan as the government declared an emergency to deal with monsoon flooding it said had affected more than 30 million people.

The annual monsoon is essential for irrigating crops and replenishing lakes and dams across the Indian subcontinent, but each year it also brings a wave of destruction.

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India ruling party legislator arrested over prophet remarks amid protests

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T Raja Singh suspended earlier this week for hate speech after allegedly abusive comments

Police in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad have arrested a suspended leader of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) for making allegedly abusive remarks about the prophet Muhammad.

Police arrested T Raja Singh, 45, on Thursday after thousands of Muslims took to the streets in the city protesting against his speech.

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India restricts wheat flour exports to ease record local prices

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Government also cites food security after heatwave stunted domestic wheat output and drove up prices

India’s cabinet has approved restrictions on wheat flour exports to calm prices in the local market.

The government banned the export of wheat itself in mid-May as a heatwave curtailed output and domestic prices hit a record high. That ban boosted demand for Indian wheat flour, exports of which jumped 200% between April and July from a year ago, and lifted prices in the local market, the government said on Thursday.

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UK’s former Myanmar ambassador arrested in Yangon, report says

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Vicky Bowman and Burmese husband Htein Lin detained and charged with immigration offences

Myanmar’s military junta has detained Britain’s former ambassador to the country, as well as her husband, a prominent artist, in Yangon.

Vicky Bowman and Htein Lin, a renowned painter and former political prisoner, were arrested in Yangon on Wednesday and charged with immigration offences, Reuters reports. They were taken to Insein prison, a notorious facility where many political prisoners are held.

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Pakistan court grants Imran Khan extended bail in terrorism case

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Police barred until 1 September from arresting former PM, whose supporters gathered outside court

A Pakistani court has barred officers from arresting the former prime minister Imran Khan until the end of the month, according to officials, after police filed terrorism charges against him.

The court protected Khan, the leader of Pakistan’s opposition, from arrest until 1 September over accusations that during a speech at the weekend, he threatened police officers and a judge.

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Rohingya crisis: plight of Myanmar’s displaced people explained in 30 seconds

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One million Rohingya remain in Bangladesh refugee camps and the persecuted group has little hope of returning to Myanmar

It has been five years since Myanmar’s military launched a campaign of massacres that killed about 7,000 Rohingya in a single month and compelled 700,000 to flee for the Bangladeshi border.

Since the first major military operation against the Rohingya minority in 1978, which forced out 200,000, the Rohingya have been collectively stripped of their citizenship and targeted by increasing violence and discrimination that culminated in the “clearance operations” that began on 25 August 2017. Those operations were years in the planning, according to military documents uncovered by the Commission for International Justice and Accountability and sent to the international criminal court.

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