KATHMANDU, Nepal — Landslides set off by heavy rainfall this weekend killed at least 11 people and left many more missing in a hilly region of Nepal that borders Tibet, officials said, bringing a renewed crisis to an area that was hit hard by a devastating 2015 earthquake. Many locals had only recently rebuilt their homes in a district that since the earthquake has emerged as one of Nepal’s most vulnerable to landslides. Nepal is also being battered by an economic crisis and widespread unemployment brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, which has left 336 people dead in the country. As many as 20 people from the village of Barhabise were missing on Sunday after the landslides, which washed away 28 homes in the region on Saturday night, leaving rescuers racing to find survivors and dig them out. “Rescuers are working hard, but rescuing the missing people alive seems impossible,” said Shreedhar Neupane, a press secretary to the speaker of Nepal’s House of Representatives, Agni Prasad Sapkota.

Source: New York Times September 13, 2020 09:33 UTC