Nepal does not need foreign rescue help with flood, foreign ministry says

KATHMANDU: Nepal does not need help from other countries to conduct search and rescue operations after a devastating flash flood wrecked towns, its foreign ministry said on Friday (Aug 28).

"The offer for help is natural. Our security agencies are doing the search and rescue operation. For now we don’t require such help,” Lok Bahadur Chhetri, spokesperson for the foreign ministry said on Friday.

This comes as Nepal's government has received both official and unofficial requests from countries and organisations to deploy their own search and rescue teams, said a senior foreign ministry official, as reported by The Kathmandu Post.

The Nepali newspaper added that the government has responded by saying that Nepal's own security agencies are capable of handling the operation.

Among those who have requested to send their own search and rescue teams are officials from India, China, US, UK, Japan, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

According to The Kathmandu Post, the official added that the government's decision is based on its experience in the 2015 Nepal earthquake, when an influx of foreign search and rescue teams had caused significant coordination and management issues.

It added that the decision was made on the recommendation of the Nepali Army and police.

Meanwhile, Nepal's foreign affairs ministry has set up an emergency response team (ERT) to assist foreigners affected by the floods, which occurred in the Rasuwa district.

"The ERT shall serve as the central coordinating body within the Ministry to facilitate search, rescue, information verification and consular assistance in respect of foreign nationals affected by, missing in, or otherwise connected to the flood incident," read a statement on the ministry's website.

The death toll in Nepal reached 469 on Friday, with almost 1,000 more missing there and in neighbouring Tibet, near where a glacier collapse on Wednesday morning sent a huge torrent of rock, ice, mud and debris cascading through Himalayan mountain river systems.

The flood ripped through villages and valleys, destroying power stations, roads and bridges along a route that links Kathmandu with Lhasa in Tibet and is popular with trekkers and pilgrims. Of those missing, at least 540 are foreigners.

The foreigners out of contact include citizens from Australia, Britain, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa and South Korea, Nepal's tourism board said.