UAE sends urgent aid to flood-hit Sri Lanka

Dubai: As per the directives of President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE has launched an urgent humanitarian response to assist communities devastated by the severe floods and landslides sweeping across Sri Lanka.

Acting through the Joint Operations Command, the UAE Aid Agency and the UAE Red Crescent, the UAE has deployed specialised search and rescue teams from the Abu Dhabi Civil Defence Authority to bolster ongoing operations in the worst-affected regions.

The response also includes the rapid delivery of emergency relief supplies, comprising essential food items, medical provisions, and critical shelter materials for displaced families, WAM reported.

The UAE will continue dispatching additional relief and shelter supplies to support the people of Sri Lanka, ease their suffering, and help accelerate recovery and stabilisation efforts in the aftermath of the disaster.

The UAE gesture comes as the toll from deadly flooding and landslides across Asia climbed past 1,100 on Monday, with Sri Lanka among the hardest-hit.

Prolonged, intense rainfall triggered Cyclone Ditwah–linked floods and landslides that have killed at least 355 people, with another 366 missing, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency and call for international aid.

Military helicopters have been deployed to rescue stranded residents and deliver food, though one crashed north of Colombo on Sunday, killing the pilot.

Floodwaters in the capital peaked overnight before beginning to recede, but officials warn the full scale of devastation—particularly in the worst-hit central districts—is only now becoming clear as blocked roads are cleared. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has called it the largest and most challenging natural disaster in Sri Lanka’s history.

Separate weather systems unleashed torrential, prolonged rainfall across Sri Lanka, Indonesia’s Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia last week.