The last mobile phone signals of the 54 Malaysians still unaccountable after Nepal's devastating August floods were traced directly to the location hit by the glacial flood, Malaysia's Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan told the Dewan Rakyat, the country's parliament, on Thursday, the Malay Mail reported.
Source: Malay Mail
The disaster struck on August 26, when a major glacial collapse unleashed a massive flash flood — described by the minister as a 'glacial tsunami' — through settlements in Nepal's northern Rasuwa district bordering Tibet. Bernama reported that 5,285 people are classified as missing and unaccounted for, among them 636 foreign nationals from 34 countries, including the 54 Malaysians. The Malay Mail reported that all 54 are believed to be dead.
Source: Bernama via BusinessToday Malaysia
Nepal has terminated its search and rescue operations, but Mohamad said the Malaysian Embassy in Kathmandu remains in contact with local authorities and trekking registration centres to review travel records and the last known locations of the missing people's phones for any new leads. 'We are still making efforts to locate them until such a time when there is no further avenue for us to pursue,' he told Parliament, Bernama reported. Malaysia had earlier deployed its Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART) to Nepal from September 5 to 11 with nine high-capability drones, but steep terrain and the scale of destruction hampered the search.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had requested an executive order from Nepal's prime minister to shorten the long wait for issuing death certificates in disaster cases. Nepal has agreed to issue an executive order reducing the process to 45 days, Mohamad told Parliament, and Malaysia is reviewing its contents. The certificates will help families resolve insurance claims, bank accounts and other legal matters.
Mohamad was answering a question from MP Mohd Suhaimi Abdullah, who had asked about the status of the Malaysians still uncontactable after the disaster. Families of the missing had called for government intervention because, without death certificates, they cannot close out the financial and legal affairs of their loved ones.
What is solid
- Malaysia's foreign minister told Parliament on Thursday that the last phone pings of the 54 missing Malaysians were traced to the Rasuwa flood site, and that the Malaysian Embassy in Kathmandu is still pursuing leads with Nepalese authorities, the Malay Mail and Bernama both reported.
- Nepal has agreed to an executive order cutting the disaster death-certificate process to 45 days, the minister said.
What is only claimed
- The wider toll figures are the minister's parliamentary figures as reported: Bernama put the missing at 5,285 including 636 foreigners, while the Malay Mail reported more than 5,500 still unaccounted for and 1,300 to 1,400 killed; the statement that all 54 Malaysians are believed dead is the Malaysian government's assessment reported by the Malay Mail, not a Nepalese confirmation of individual deaths.