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STORY: UN / NEPAL FLOODS
TRT: 03:17
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 27 AUGUST 2026, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Aerial shot, exterior UN Headquarters
27 AUGUST 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press room dais, United Nations Resident Coordinator for Nepal Lila Pieters Yahia on screen
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Lila Pieters Yahia, Resident Coordinator for Nepal, United Nations:
“The government of Prime Minister Balen Shah is leading the search and rescue and is coordinating any type of response. More than 30,000 security personnel have been mobilised, and they're working day and night to try to search and to rescue people.”
4. Wide shot, press room dais, Yahia on screen
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Lila Pieters Yahia, Resident Coordinator for Nepal, United Nations:
“So far, what has been reported as of 7 pm tonight, Katmandu time, is we have 359 people, unfortunately, who have lost their life. 73 people have been hospitalised and some of them have been released. The missing people. It's a total of 910, of which 517 are foreigners from different nationalities.”
6. Wide shot, press room dais, Yahia on screen
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Lila Pieters Yahia, Resident Coordinator for Nepal, United Nations:
“We have over 35 bridges which have been destroyed. The roads are destroyed and so it's extremely, extremely difficult to have access. We have about 40km of road which are damaged. We have electricity which has been disrupted, about 10 percent in the total area. And in total, we have about 10,000 households, which are in immediate need.”
8. Wide shot, press room dais, Yahia on screen
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Lila Pieters Yahia, Resident Coordinator for Nepal, United Nations:
“We have been provided with $2.5 million from the CERF, and I would like to thank very much USG Fletcher for his support. And we're getting a lot of support from OCHA. I have a team from OCHA who is arriving tomorrow morning to support us with coordination. All the UN agencies, particularly UNICEF, WFP, UNFPA and WHO are mobilised and have been conducting assessments and also going into the field.”
10. Wide shot, press room dais, Yahia on screen
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Lila Pieters Yahia, Resident Coordinator for Nepal, United Nations:
“In addition to the CERF funding that we have received, the Swiss government has generously given us one million dollars. More and more funding is becoming available. We heard today when I held an HTC that both Australia and the United Kingdom will be also providing some relief funding to support the government. The government has established a relief fund. And already the World Bank, India, China, and the US have committed to pledge 229 million dollars to support.”
12. Wide shot, press room dais, Yahia on screen
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Lila Pieters Yahia, Resident Coordinator for Nepal, United Nations:
“The government has just issued a warning this afternoon of potential, additional flood risk in the Koshi River. And so, what we have all to exercise is to be very cautious. And they have sent warnings to the population living in that area and requesting all the population to stand away from riverbanks and to go up as much as possible and to find safe places.”
14. Wide shot, end of presser
Providing an update on the floods in Nepal, the United Nations Resident Coordinator Lila Pieters Yahia today (27 Aug) told reporters in New York that as of tonight, “we have 359 people, unfortunately, who have lost their life,” while 73 people have been hospitalised and 910 are missing, including “517 are foreigners from different nationalities.”
Briefing via video teleconference from Katmandu, Yahia said, “the government of Prime Minister Balen Shah is leading the search and rescue and is coordinating any type of response,” and noted that “more than 30,000 security personnel have been mobilised, and they're working day and night to try to search and to rescue people.”
She said, “we have over 35 bridges which have been destroyed. The roads are destroyed and so it's extremely, extremely difficult to have access. We have about 40km of road which are damaged. We have electricity which has been disrupted, about 10 percent in the total area. And in total, we have about 10,000 households, which are in immediate need.”
The Resident Coordinator thanked Under Secretary-General Tom Fletcher for providing USD 2.5 million from the UN’s Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) and reported that a team from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) “is arriving tomorrow morning to support us with coordination.”
All the UN agencies, she said, “particularly UNICEF, WFP, UNFPA and WHO are mobilised and have been conducting assessments and also going into the field.”
In addition to the CERF funding, Yahia said, “the Swiss government has generously given us one million dollars,” and “more and more funding is becoming available,” including from Australia, the United Kingdom, India, China, the US and the World Bank.
Responding to a reporter’s question, she said, “the government has just issued a warning this afternoon of potential, additional flood risk in the Koshi River. And so, what we have all to exercise is to be very cautious. And they have sent warnings to the population living in that area and requesting all the population to stand away from riverbanks and to go up as much as possible and to find safe places.”
