Angelina Jolie visits Pakistan flood victims, saying she's 'never seen anything like this'

Hollywood star promises to use her influence to push the international community to do more about climate change

Angelina Jolie has arrived in Pakistan to draw international attention to the country's unfolding humanitarian crisis in the wake of unprecedented rains and floods. According to the country's National Disaster Management Authority, a total 1,559 people, including 551 children, have died and more than 33 million people have been displaced since the monsoon season started in mid-June. Photo: International Rescue Committee

Jolie with a young mother in a makeshift shelter in Dadu, Pakistan. Photo: International Rescue Committee

Women in the village of Ibrahim Chandio in Dadu, Sindh talk to Angelina Jolie about some of the horrors they continue to face following the floods. Photo: International Rescue Committee

Angelina Jolie attends a briefing at the National Flood Response and Coordination Centre in Islamabad, Pakistan. Reuters

Actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie has arrived in Pakistan to help raise attention to the plight of communities affected by the devastating floods. Monsoon rains and record flooding have badly hit the country's north-west provinces, killing more than 1,400 people and affecting more than 33 million.

Scroll through the gallery above for more pictures from Angelina Jolie's visit to Pakistan

Jolie, who is also a special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, arrived in Dadu in Sindh on Tuesday. Her visit, arranged by the International Rescue Committee, is meant to "gain understanding of the situation, and to hear from people affected directly about their needs, and about steps to prevent such suffering in the future", the international aid organisation said.

Photos released by the IRC showed Jolie, 47, meeting with women and children and taking notes. The actor arrived in Dadu’s Zamzama oil fields via helicopter and used a boat to survey the area, Pakistani daily Dawn said.

On Wednesday, the Hollywood star met officials in the country's capital Islamabad. A photo released by Pakistan's National Flood Response Coordination Centre showed Jolie being briefed by government and military officials. The centre said Jolie assured them she will inform the world about the scale of devastation caused by the floods and climate change.

Jolie has visited Pakistan a number of times before, most notably in 2005 following a devastating earthquake, which killed more than 80,000 people.

"I am here as a friend to Pakistan and the many warm friends and relationships I have here and will continue to return. My heart is very much with people at this time," she says in one clip shared from the meeting on Wednesday.

"I've never seen anything like this before. I came first because of the generosity that the Pakistani people have shown to the people of Afghanistan over the years as a host country."

Jolie also visited the IRC’s emergency response operations and met with local organisations assisting displaced people, including Afghan refugees. Pakistan, which has contributed only 1 per cent of global carbon emissions, is also the second largest host of refugees globally and its people have sheltered Afghan refugees for more than 40 years, the IRC said.

"It's often the countries that don't have as much that give more than other countries," Jolie says in another clip from the visit. "And now at this time, we see it's the countries that don't cause as much to the environment that's bearing the brunt of the disaster. I am absolutely with you in pushing the international community to do more.

"This is a real wake-up call to the world about where we're at. Climate change is not only real and it's not only coming, it's very much here."

Jolie has won numerous awards for her humanitarian work, mostly focused on the plight of refugees around the world. This year alone, she's visited Yemen to urge the world to help victims of the war-ravaged nation in March and was in the Ukrainian city of Lviv in May to meet some of the people displaced by the war with Russia.

UN chief appeals to world to help flood-hit Pakistan — in pictures

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, second left, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, second right, meet children at a camp for people displaced by floods, in Usta Mohammad city, Balochistan province, on Saturday, September 10, 2022. AFP

Mr Guterres sits in a helicopter during his visit to flood-affected areas in Pakistan's Sindh province. AFP

A camp set up the UN refugee agency, in Sukkur, Pakistan, to house people displaced by the deadly floods. AP

Flood victims drink tea at the UNHCR camp in Sukkur. AP

People displaced by the floods carry grass for their cattle in Sehwan, Sindh province. AP

The UN chief has appealed to the world to assist cash-strapped Pakistan after the monsoon flooding killed more than 1,300 people and displaced millions more. AP

A home damaged by floodwaters in Sehwan, Sindh province. AP

Displaced people receive aid from the Pakistani army in Sehwan. AP

This aerial photograph shows a flooded area on the outskirts of Sukkur, Sindh province. AFP

Displaced people wait by a damaged road next to floodwaters in Kalam Valley, in northern Pakistan. AP