UN launches flood relief operations in Nepal
The UN said it had started providing emergency supplies of food and medicine for Nepalis hit by floods and landslides triggered by the monsoon.
KATHMANDU: The United Nations said on Thursday it had started providing emergency supplies of food and medicine for hundreds of thousands of Nepalis hit by floods and landslides triggered by the monsoon.
"The UN in Nepal stands fully committed to extend all possible assistance to the people of the affected districts who are suffering from the current natural calamity," UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Matthew Kahane said in a statement.
At least 84 people have been killed since the monsoon began in mid-June and hundreds of thousands have been displaced and are at risk of water-borne diseases, the government said.
The army and police force have also been mobilised to assist those hit by the floods and landslides in the south, it added.
Thirty-two of Nepal's 75 districts have been affected by flooding in the plains along low-land jungle regions on the southern border with India, Nepal's home ministry said.
"The weather has improved in the southeastern region, but in the southwest we are expecting more rain for a couple of days," said Keshab Bam Malla, a senior meteorologist with Nepal's national weather forecasting division.
Dozens of people in Nepal die annually in the monsoon, some from landslides, and others from flooding.