UAE sends second aid flight to Nepal as flood death toll passes 1,000
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A UAE aircraft carrying 45 tonnes of emergency supplies has arrived in Nepal as rescue teams continue searching for thousands of people missing after devastating floods and landslides.
The shipment, containing food, relief materials and electricity generators, forms part of a $10 million Emirati humanitarian package for affected communities.
It is the second UAE aid flight sent to Nepal since the disaster. An earlier aircraft delivered 85 tonnes of food and shelter supplies on Sunday, taking the combined amount dispatched to 130 tonnes.
A glacier collapse and landslide caused severe flash flooding on Wednesday along Nepal’s border with the Chinese region of Tibet.
The disaster destroyed communities, roads and bridges, leaving emergency teams struggling to reach people stranded in remote locations.
The combined death toll in Nepal and Tibet has passed 1,000.
Nepalese authorities have reported 987 deaths in the country, while further fatalities have been recorded in Tibet.
More than 4,000 people remain missing across the two areas.
At least 11,814 people have been rescued in Nepal, with helicopters being used to reach locations cut off by damaged roads and bridges.
Rescue workers have increased efforts to reach more than 600 people believed to be trapped inside blocked hydropower tunnels.
The search is focused on 11 hydropower projects, including sites in the severely affected districts of Rasuwa and Nuwakot.
Images released by emergency teams showed heavy machinery operating in darkness as workers attempted to clear mud and rock blocking access to the tunnels.
Nepalese Prime Minister Balendra Shah described the flooding as an “unprecedented and devastating natural disaster”.
He said authorities were still struggling to compile a complete assessment of the damage.
UAE relief package
The $10 million response is being delivered through the UAE Aid Agency on the instructions of President Sheikh Mohamed.
Dr Tareq Al Amiri, chairman of the agency, said the UAE would continue supporting international responses to disasters and humanitarian crises.
A team from the agency is working with Nepalese authorities and international organisations to direct assistance towards the communities most severely affected.