Nepal holds day of mourning for victims of devastating floods as families pray missing still alive

Nepal holds day of mourning for victims of devastating floods as families pray missing still alive.

Key points

• The United Nations has appealed for $50m to support more than 84, 000 residents.
• While around 4, 996 individuals are missing, according to the disaster agency, in Nepal, rescuers have retrieved 1, 355 bodies.
• Nepal Army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet informed AFP on Monday that rescue efforts were continuing "with the same tempo we had on day one".
• "We are facing something I have never faced before, " remarked Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, in a post on social media.
• Foreign experts, including from China, India and South Korea, are aiding Nepali teams in rescue efforts.

Nepal holds day of mourning for victims of devastating floods as families pray missing still alive. AFP Published September 7, 2026 Updated September 7, 2026 01: 24pm. Join our Whatsapp Channel. Add Dawn as a trusted source.

As families of missing hydropower workers feared trapped in tunnels prayed rescuers might yet find them alive, nepal held a national day of mourning on Monday for victims of devastating glacial floods.

In practice, the August 26 glacial and mountain collapse on the China-Nepal border killed at least 1, 398 individuals, with more than 5, 500 missing, including around 800 foreigners.

After traditional Hindu mourning rituals on the 13th day after death, flags flew at half-mast, with candlelight vigils planned afterwards in the day.

Hundreds of hydropower workers are among the missing, but the rescue of three of them from deep inside tunnels – two Nepalis on Friday and a Chinese man on Saturday – have buoyed hopes that more could still be alive.

"Our focus is on search and rescue at three levels – on ground, by air, and in the tunnels, " he remarked.

"We are making sure that no one is still stranded." Entire communities have been swept away, roads destroyed, and homes demolished.

But families of some of the missing workers who gathered in the capital, Kathmandu, remarked the administration must move faster.

"We have a lot of hope, " remarked Reena Amatya Shrestha, whose brother is among the missing.

"They say they are doing rescue. If the rescue is there, where's the result? We need the result."

Australian tunnel rescue expert Arnold Dix. This person is advising Nepali teams, remarked the operation presented an unprecedented challenge.

"Not one rescue, but multiple potential rescues, unfolding at the same time, in different places, each with its own dangers, uncertainties, and lives that may still be saved."

"We are measured not only by the lives we save, but by the lives we refuse to abandon, " remarked Dix, a key adviser during the Indian rescue of 41 men trapped for 17 days inside the collapsed Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand state in 2023. "Silkyara taught me never to confuse unlikely with impossible, " he remarked.

With mortuaries overflowing, Nepal has buried hundreds of bodies in mass graves after taking DNA samples for future identification, according to police.

Only around 100 bodies have been identified and handed over to families.

While the exact cause of the glacial collapse is unclear, climate change is accelerating glacial melting worldwide, increasing the risk of such disasters.

Nepal, a largely rural nation of 30 million individuals that has contributed little to the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming, states reconstruction could cost billions of dollars.

Its economy is already under pressure, with limited resources to respond to a disaster of this scale.

Meanwhile, the disaster has come just ahead of the anniversary of last year's September 8-9 mass anti-corruption protests that toppled the administration, and the young administration now faces the enormous task of rebuilding communities and critical infrastructure.

Notably, a UN preliminary assessment estimated building damage from Nepal's floods at $158m alone, warning that total losses – including damage to roads and bridges, agricultural land and humanitarian costs – would be far higher.

Notably, the United Nations has appealed for $50m to support more than 84, 000 residents.

"My plea to the international community is – this is the time to help Nepal, " UN country chief Lila Pieters Yahia informed AFP.

While around 4, 996 individuals are missing, according to the disaster agency, in Nepal, rescuers have retrieved 1, 355 bodies. In China, the toll is 43 dead and 519 missing, according to state media.

Taken together, the developments around nepal holds day of mourning for victims of devastating floods as families point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.