Nepal Seeks Specialized Foreign Technical Aid for Flood Disaster Recovery

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Kathmandu: Nepal has requested targeted international technical assistance following a catastrophic glacier collapse and flash floods along its Himalayan border with China, while clarifying that overseas teams are not needed for general search and rescue.

Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal told Reuters that Kathmandu requires specialized expertise to handle complex recovery operations. Key areas of need include executing subterranean tunnel rescues at inundated hydropower sites, restoring transport corridors where nearly two dozen bridges were destroyed, conducting forensic DNA testing, and managing long-term body storage. Nepal has requested portable bailey bridges from neighboring India and China to rapidly restore broken transport and communication links across the worst-affected districts.

The diplomatic clarification follows an earlier announcement declining general foreign rescue operations, with officials noting that thousands of Nepali security personnel are adequately handling surface operations. The disaster, triggered by a massive ice-and-debris flow on Wednesday, has left nearly 600 people dead across Nepal and Tibet, with over 2,000 individuals still missing.

Pic Credit: AFP