Already beset by wide-spread extremist militancy, saddled with a weak civilian government and in the midst of a considerable fiscal crisis, Pakistan already had more than its fair share of trouble. But monsoon rains in July triggered almost unprecedented flooding that inundated the Indus river basin — at one point, almost a fifth of the country was under water. Around 20 million Pakistanis were displaced by the rising waters; some 2,000 people died as well as an estimated 10 million heads of livestock. The damage to the economy — by some accounts up to $43 billion — has been a withering blow to the Pakistani state, which struggled to come to the aid of many of the stranded and homeless. Reports suggest that charities linked to fundamentalists often filled the void. The international community was also slow in responding to the unfolding calamity — while over $742 million in aid was committed to Haiti within days of its earthquake, a paltry $45 million had been set aside for Pakistan a month after the rains began.
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