Chairman of the UAE Aid Agency Dr. Tareq Ahmed Al Amiri has confirmed that emergency relief teams are on the ground in coordination with Nepali authorities and international partners, working to channel support to survivors across a region reeling from one of the Himalayas’ deadliest disasters in recent memory.
The mobilization follows a decision by the UAE to release $10 million in humanitarian funding for communities battered by the flooding and landslides that tore through Nepal’s northern districts. Channeled through the UAE Aid Agency, the package was authorized on the instructions of UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Al Amiri framed the contribution as consistent with the country’s record of moving quickly when catastrophe strikes abroad, pointing to what he described as a national commitment rooted in solidarity and cooperation across borders. He argued that responses of this kind demand coordinated action, and pressed for stronger joint efforts to reach populations displaced or endangered by natural disasters and other emergencies. Relief, he said, must be delivered without leaving anyone out — reaching women, men and children alike.
The aid arrives as the human cost of the August 26 catastrophe continues to mount. Nepali police put the number of confirmed dead at 469 as of Friday, according to CNN, with more than 1,300 people still unaccounted for — among them hundreds of foreign trekkers and pilgrims. Reuters reported that roughly 466 people had been injured and that some 28 police officers were among the missing.
The flooding began when a wall of ice, rock and mud gave way near the Nepal-Tibet border, blocking a river before releasing a sudden surge that raced downstream through the Trishuli and Bhotekoshi valleys. Disaster risk specialist Saswata Sanyal of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development told several outlets that the event stemmed from an ice-rock avalanche off a glacier on the Nepali side. He noted a troubling pattern: “The Lhende Khola has flooded twice in 14 months, this time triggered by an ice rock avalanche from a glacier on the Nepal side that blocked the river and released a sudden surge downstream.”
The waters swept away homes, bridges, roadways and hydropower installations, cutting off entire settlements. Nepali crews have turned to helicopters both to search for the living and to airlift supplies into towns that ground routes can no longer reach. Many of the missing had been traveling a corridor linking Kathmandu with Lhasa, a route heavily used by pilgrims bound for Mount Kailash.
The UAE is among several governments to have stepped forward. Britain offered GBP5 million, Sri Lanka pledged $1 million, and Washington signaled it would supply whatever assistance Nepal requested, with U.S. officials confirming that dozens of American citizens remained unaccounted for.
Across the border in China’s Gyirong County, authorities are contending with a separate danger: a temporary barrier lake formed by landslide debris that officials fear could rupture and unleash a second wave of flooding downstream.
