UN resident coordinator reports hundreds dead, hundreds missing after Nepal floods

Leila Pietas Yaya, the United Nations resident coordinator for Nepal, told a press briefing that "so far... we have 359 people, unfortunately, who have lost their life," and that 73 people have been hospitalized while about 910 are reported missing.

Pietas Yaya said the figures she provided come from the government and that search-and-rescue operations are being led and coordinated by Nepal’s prime minister. She described large-scale infrastructure damage — including more than 35 bridges destroyed and roughly 40 kilometers of road damaged — and said about 10,000 households are in immediate need of assistance.

She listed UN agencies on the ground — UNICEF, WFP, UNFPA and WHO — as conducting assessments and providing support, and said OCHA teams would arrive to assist coordination. Pietas Yaya emphasized that the government’s assessment is the authoritative source for numbers and cautioned that figures may change as rescue operations and data collection continue.