Floods in Nepal: UN Reports 359 Dead & 910 Missing - Press Conference | United Nations

Providing an update on the floods in Nepal, the United Nations Resident Coordinator Lila Pieters Yahia told reporters in New York that as of tonight, “we have 359 people, unfortunately, who have lost their life,” while 73 people have been hospitalised and 910 are missing, including “517 are foreigners from different nationalities.” Briefing via video teleconference from Katmandu, Yahia said, “the government of Prime Minister Balen Shah is leading the search and rescue and is coordinating any type of response,” and noted that “more than 30,000 security personnel have been mobilised, and they're working day and night to try to search and to rescue people.” She said, “we have over 35 bridges which have been destroyed. The roads are destroyed and so it's extremely, extremely difficult to have access. We have about 40km of road which are damaged. We have electricity which has been disrupted, about 10 percent in the total area. And in total, we have about 10,000 households, which are in immediate need.” The Resident Coordinator thanked Under Secretary-General Tom Fletcher for providing USD 2.5 million from the UN’s Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) and reported that a team from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) “is arriving tomorrow morning to support us with coordination.” All the UN agencies, she said, “particularly UNICEF, WFP, UNFPA and WHO are mobilised and have been conducting assessments and also going into the field.” In addition to the CERF funding, Yahia said, “the Swiss government has generously given us one million dollars,” and “more and more funding is becoming available,” including from Australia, the United Kingdom, India, China, the US and the World Bank. Responding to a reporter’s question, she said, “the government has just issued a warning this afternoon of potential, additional flood risk in the Koshi River. And so, what we have all to exercise is to be very cautious. And they have sent warnings to the population living in that area and requesting all the population to stand away from riverbanks and to go up as much as possible and to find safe places.”


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