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At least 33 people killed in floods and landslides across western Nepal in past week

Thousands evacuated from many provinces as hundreds of homes damaged by floodwaters

Maroosha Muzaffar
Wednesday 12 October 2022 08:26 EDT
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Unicef says it is on the ground with lifesaving supplies to help children and their families impacted by recent rainfall in western Nepal
Unicef says it is on the ground with lifesaving supplies to help children and their families impacted by recent rainfall in western Nepal (UNICEF Nepal / Twitter)

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At least 33 people have died in Nepal from floods and landslides triggered by incessant rainfall over the last week, reported local media.

Thousands have been evacuated from several provinces in the country’s northwest, where the monsoon has hit the hardest.

At least 18 people are also reportedly missing across the Karnali province while hundreds of homes have been damaged by floodwaters.

The Kathmandu Post newspaper reported that 13 people who were attending a funeral went missing after a massive landslide struck at Rachuli in Tilagupha Municipality-4, Kalikot on Sunday. It said that two individuals sustained critical injuries in the incident.

One police spokesperson was quoted as saying by the Annapurna Post that they have “mobilised police officers on the ground. We have arranged a helicopter for air rescue from Surkhet. However, unfortunately, due to the weather not improving, progress is not being made as expected”.

Meanwhile, on Monday, in Tilagupha, three members of a family went missing when a landslide buried a house. Rescuers retrieved two bodies while three are still missing, local media reported.

In the neighbouring districts of Mugu and Humla, at least 12 people died and one person went missing in separate incidents of landslides on Sunday.

In Mugu, eight people died when a landslide lashed Salim village in Chhayannath Rara Municipality on Sunday. A villager is still missing in the disaster, police said.

The government has dispatched aid in helicopters to several regions. Unicef also said that they were distributing food and medicine to people in western Nepal.

It said that “around 6,500 people, including over 2,600 children, have received essential items in flood- and landslide-affected areas in seven districts”.

At least 110 people have died so far this year in rain-related disasters.

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