Flooding leaves millions in Pakistan at risk of malnutrition, disease, aid groups warn

"A feeble international response to Pakistan's second major flooding crisis in two years has left millions of people at serious risk of malnutrition and disease, aid groups warned Thursday," Agence France-Presse reports. "The Pakistan Humanitarian Forum (PHF), a network of the 41 largest international charities in the country, called on the international community and Pakistan to take urgent steps with the next monsoon season months away," the news service adds. "At least 2.5 million people are still without food, water, shelter, sanitation and health care, putting them at serious risk of malnutrition, disease and deepening poverty, said the coalition of international charities," AFP writes, adding, "Around 43 percent of affected people are severely short of food and malnutrition levels were already well above the emergency threshold in the southern provinces of Sindh and Baluchistan before the floods struck" (Gilani, 2/15).