China, Nepal race to find thousands still missing 12 days after floods

Rescuers race against time to locate thousands missing after a deadly glacial collapse on the China-Nepal border.

Flash flood survivors rest inside a relief shelter at Devighat in Nepal's Nuwakot district on September 6, 2026 [Pedro Pardo/AFP]

Rescuers in Nepal are racing to reach thousands of people missing in areas near the China border after catastrophic floods as search operations enter their 12th day.

The flooding that authorities say was likely caused by a glacial collapse last month has killed at least 1,384 people and left more than 5,500 missing, among them about 800 foreigners, across the two countries.

list 1 of 3 Families perform symbolic funerals for missing Nepal flood victims

list 2 of 3 Stranded survivors in Nepal cross raging Trishuli River using zip line

list 3 of 3 Is Nepal leading the battle for climate justice?

In Nepal, rescuers have retrieved 1,341 bodies and are searching for about 4,996 people, the national disaster agency said on Sunday. In Tibet, the death toll has risen to 43, with 519 people missing, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.

Four people have been found alive since Friday, three of them in tunnels at hydropower facilities, where the government initially said about 100 people could be alive. Nepal’s Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha said teams at flooded hydropower tunnels were facing multiple challenges.

“Search and rescue is going on at the tunnels despite geography, adverse weather and lack of connectivity,” he told the AFP news agency.

On the Chinese side, rescuers face deep mud, poor weather and the risk of further landslides that have slowed work in the narrow gorge.

Nothing remains of a five-storey customs building at Gyirong, once China’s main land port with Nepal, where workers are digging with shovels, excavators and ground-penetrating radar to recover lost people.

The only road into Gyirong reopened on Wednesday, allowing heavy equipment in.

A case of climate justice

Nepal has issued a request that an untested climate emergency mechanism provide aid.

It is asking the United Nations-backed Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage – founded in 2022 to assist developing countries “particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change” – to cover some of the staggering costs of the flood.

The United Nations has appealed for $50m to help more than 84,000 people, saying the destruction makes delivering aid an immense challenge.

On Wednesday, Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal pointed to the role of leading greenhouse gas emitters that have a “historical responsibility to compensate vulnerable nations like Nepal”.

He added that the government has officially filed a “formal climate compensation claim letter” to international partners.

While the exact cause of the glacial collapse remains under investigation, experts say that the frequency and scale of glacier floods have increased as global temperatures have risen.

A United Nations study found that such floods have become nearly five times more frequent since 1950.

Manjeet Dhakal, lead adviser to the UN Least Developed Countries Group on Climate Change, says the global community has a responsibility to cover the cost of disasters afflicting developing nations like Nepal, and that the fund should accept the request.

Countries hit by such disasters are being forced to divert money set aside for health, education and development, he told Al Jazeera. “There are many cases where vulnerable countries are bearing their own cost,” Dhakal said.

The flood was “not caused because of what Nepal has done in the past or in current form”, Dhakal said, noting, “That’s where the global community has a bigger responsibility to come in.”

The UN fund has limited resources, he said. Indeed, its website reflects that it has received only about $631m of $822m in funds pledged by contributing states since inception, and has yet to spend out of the amount.

But, Dhakal said, even a “symbolic amount” could serve as an “inspiring lesson for the fund to justify what it was established for”.

Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, reporting from a Buddhist monastery turned shelter in Kathmandu, said refugees there are still only just beginning to reckon with the trauma of the catastrophe.

“There are people meditating, praying, and there are children. It looks like there is a semblance of normal life,” Haque said. “But make no mistake, I was talking to some of the children here. They’ve lost everything. They’ve lost their families, their homes, their parents.”

About 200 people were brought by helicopter to the holy site, known as the Yellow Monastery, where doctors and volunteers have attended to them.

Haque spoke to a volunteer who had put out drawings for children to express their feelings.

“All of them put their stickers on ‘happy’, he said. Now why is that? The reason, he said, is that the children’s emotions remain suppressed so soon after the crisis,” Haque noted.

“What this volunteer told me is that in the days, months, or years to come, the floods will open, just like the floods open in the Himalayas, and emotions will be poured out.”

救援人员争分夺秒，搜寻在中国-尼泊尔边境发生致命冰川崩塌后失踪的数千人。

2026年9月6日，尼泊尔努瓦科特地区德维加特，山洪幸存者在救济避难所内休息。[Pedro Pardo/AFP]

尼泊尔救援人员正争分夺秒地搜寻在靠近中国边境地区遭遇毁灭性洪水后失踪的数千人，搜救行动已进入第 12 天。

当局称，上个月冰川崩塌很可能是造成洪水灾害的原因，洪水已造成两国至少 1384 人死亡，5500 多人失踪，其中包括约 800 名外国人。

列表 1/3：尼泊尔洪灾失踪者家属举行象征性葬礼

尼泊尔三名被困幸存者利用滑索穿越湍急的特里苏里河（列表 2/3）

列表 3（共 3 项）尼泊尔是否在气候正义的斗争中处于领先地位？

尼泊尔国家灾害管理机构周日表示，救援人员已找到1341具遇难者遗体，目前仍在搜寻约4996名失踪人员。据新华社报道，西藏的死亡人数已上升至43人，另有519人失踪。

自周五以来，已有四人被发现幸存，其中三人是在水电站的隧道中获救的。尼泊尔政府最初表示，隧道内可能有多达100人幸存。尼泊尔能源部长比拉杰·巴克塔·什雷斯塔表示，被洪水淹没的水电站隧道救援队面临着多重挑战。

“尽管地理位置偏远、天气恶劣且缺乏网络连接，但隧道内的搜救工作仍在进行中，”他告诉法新社。

在中国一侧，救援人员面临着泥泞不堪、天气恶劣以及可能发生进一步山体滑坡的风险，这些都减缓了狭窄峡谷中的救援工作。

吉隆曾是中国与尼泊尔的主要陆路口岸，如今一座五层高的海关大楼已荡然无存。工人们正在那里用铁锹、挖掘机和探地雷达挖掘，以寻找失踪人员。

通往吉隆的唯一道路于周三重新开放，重型设备得以进入。

气候正义案例

尼泊尔已提出请求，希望通过一项未经检验的气候紧急机制提供援助。

它请求联合国支持的应对损失和损害基金（成立于 2022 年，旨在帮助“特别容易受到气候变化不利影响”的发展中国家）承担部分洪灾造成的巨额损失。

联合国呼吁筹集 5000 万美元，以帮助超过 84000 人，并表示这场灾难使援助物资的运送成为一项巨大的挑战。

周三，尼泊尔外交部长希希尔·卡纳尔指出，温室气体排放大国负有“补偿尼泊尔等脆弱国家的历史责任”。

他还补充说，政府已正式向国际合作伙伴提交了“正式气候赔偿请求函”。

虽然冰川崩塌的确切原因仍在调查中，但专家表示，随着全球气温上升，冰川洪水发生的频率和规模都在增加。

联合国的一项研究发现，自 1950 年以来，此类洪水发生的频率增加了近五倍。

联合国最不发达国家气候变化小组首席顾问曼吉特·达卡尔表示，国际社会有责任承担尼泊尔等发展中国家遭受灾害的费用，该基金应该接受这一请求。

他告诉半岛电视台，遭受此类灾害的国家被迫挪用原本用于卫生、教育和发展的资金。“很多情况下，脆弱国家都在自掏腰包承担损失，”达卡尔说。

达卡尔表示，这场洪水“并非尼泊尔过去或现在所作所为造成的”，并指出，“这正是国际社会肩负更大责任的地方”。

他说，联合国基金的资源有限。事实上，该基金的网站显示，自成立以来，捐助国承诺的8.22亿美元资金中，该基金仅收到约6.31亿美元，而且尚未动用这笔资金。

但达卡尔表示，即使是“象征性的金额”，也可以“激励该基金证明其成立的初衷是合理的”。

半岛电视台记者尼古拉斯·哈克从加德满都一座改建为避难所的佛教寺院发回报道称，那里的难民至今仍未完全从这场灾难的创伤中恢复过来。

“这里有人在冥想、祈祷，还有孩子。看起来一切似乎都恢复了正常，”哈克说。“但请不要误会，我和这里的一些孩子交谈过。他们失去了一切。他们失去了家人、家园和父母。”

约 200 人被直升机送往圣地黄寺，医生和志愿者在那里为他们提供治疗。

哈克与一位志愿者交谈，这位志愿者摆放了一些图画，让孩子们表达他们的感受。

“他们都把贴纸贴在了‘快乐’上，”他说。“这是为什么呢？”哈克指出，“原因在于，危机过后不久，孩子们的情绪就被压抑住了。”

“这位志愿者告诉我，在未来的日子、几个月或几年里，洪水将会爆发，就像喜马拉雅山的洪水一样，人们的情绪将会倾泻而出。”