Angelina Jolie visits flood-stricken Pakistan, urges more aid

Sep 7, 2010, 8:26 GMT

Islamabad - Hollywood celebrity Angelina Jolie arrived in Pakistan Tuesday as a United Nations goodwill ambassador to meet flood victims and urge more international aid, a UN official said.

'She has arrived here on a 24-hour visit,' Ishrat Rizvi said in Islamabad. 'She will be visiting some relief camps and meet the flood-affected people.'

Rizvi said the purpose of Jolie's visit is to 'mobilize the international community to assist Pakistani flood victims.'

The actress's visit came as the UN said donations from the international community had stalled.

Over 18 million flood victims are in urgent need of need of food, shelter, clean water and medical care, the UN said.

The world body appealed last month for 460 million dollars for emergency assistance but it has so far secured only 320 million dollars.

Jolie, who has donated 100,000 dollars to the Pakistan relief funds of the UN's High Commission for Refugees, would highlight the plight of flood survivors.

'This is not just a humanitarian crisis, it is an economic and social catastrophe,' Jolie said last week.

Weeks of floods have devastated around 20 per cent of the country, killed more than 1,700 people and destroyed crops, orchards and livestock.

According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, the floods destroyed 1.31 million standing crops and about 274,334 animals, excluding poultry, were lost.