Race to Rescue Thousands Missing After Deadly Glacial Collapse on China-Nepal Border

Rescuers race against time to locate thousands missing after a deadly glacial collapse on the China-Nepal border. Search operations enter their 12th day now. Teams struggle deep inside flooded zones near the border line. Catastrophic floods swept through these regions last month. Authorities blame a sudden glacial collapse for the disaster. At least 1,384 people have died so far. More than 5,500 remain missing across both nations. About 800 of those missing are foreigners.

In Nepal, rescuers pulled out 1,341 bodies Sunday. They still hunt for roughly 4,996 others. The national disaster agency confirmed these grim numbers. In Tibet, the death toll climbed to 43. Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported that figure. Five hundred and nineteen people remain missing there too.

Four people have been found alive since Friday. Three emerged from tunnels at hydropower facilities. Officials initially said about 100 could be trapped inside. Nepal's Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha addressed the difficult reality. He told AFP news agency that teams face multiple challenges. Geography, adverse weather, and lack of connectivity block their path.

"Search and rescue is going on at the tunnels despite geography, adverse weather and lack of connectivity," he stated clearly. On the Chinese side, rescuers battle deep mud. Poor weather adds to the danger. Risk of further landslides slows work in the narrow gorge. Nothing remains of a five-storey customs building at Gyirong. That site was once China's main land port with Nepal. Workers dig with shovels and excavators now. They use ground-penetrating radar to recover lost people. The only road into Gyirong reopened on Wednesday. Heavy equipment finally rolled in after that.

Nepal issued a request for aid from an untested climate emergency mechanism. It asks the United Nations-backed Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage to help. That fund was founded in 2022 to assist developing countries particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. The UN appealed for $50m to help more than 84,000 people. Destruction makes delivering aid an immense challenge there. On Wednesday, Nepal's Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal pointed to the role of leading greenhouse gas emitters. He said they have a historical responsibility to compensate vulnerable nations like Nepal. The government officially filed a formal climate compensation claim letter to international partners.

While experts say the exact cause remains under investigation, global temperatures rising increased flood frequency and scale. A United Nations study found such floods became nearly five times more frequent since 1950. Manjeet Dhakal is lead adviser to the UN Least Developed Countries Group on Climate Change. He says the global community must cover disaster costs for developing nations like Nepal. The fund should accept that request, he argued. Countries hit by these disasters divert money set aside for health, education and development. Many vulnerable countries bear their own cost, Dhakal told Al Jazeera. "The flood was not caused because of what Nepal has done in the past or in current form," he said. That is where the global community has a bigger responsibility to come in. The UN fund has limited resources available right now.

The website shows a stark reality: only about $631 million of the $822 million pledged by contributing states has actually arrived since the fund began. Not a single dollar has been spent yet on these massive needs. Yet Dhakal insists that even a symbolic amount could serve as an inspiring lesson for the fund to justify its very existence and purpose.

A flood of emotion washes over Kathmandu now. Al Jazeera's Nicolas Haque reports from a Buddhist monastery turned shelter where refugees are only just beginning to reckon with the trauma of the catastrophe. "There are people meditating, praying, and there are children," Haque said while describing the scene. "It looks like there is a semblance of normal life." But make no mistake about this. He was talking directly to some of the children there. They've lost everything. They've lost their families, their homes, and their parents all at once.

About 200 people were brought by helicopter to this holy site, known as the Yellow Monastery, where doctors and volunteers have attended to them with urgency. Haque spoke to a volunteer who had put out drawings for children to express their feelings through art. "All of them put their stickers on 'happy'," he said when asked about the cheerful response. Now why is that? The reason lies deep within the silence of the camp. He explained that the children's emotions remain suppressed so soon after the crisis struck without warning.

"What this volunteer told me is that in the days, months, or years to come, the floods will open," Haque noted with a somber tone. Just like the floods open in the Himalayas themselves eventually. So too will these emotions pour out when the dam breaks inside their young hearts.