On the flash floods along the Nepal–China border

The Communist Party of Sri Lanka expresses profound sorrow over the catastrophic flash floods and mudslides that struck the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli river corridor on 26 August, devastating Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts in Nepal and the Gyirong border area in the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China. 

We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the more than 160 people confirmed dead, and we hold in our thoughts the many hundreds still unaccounted for. Entire settlements at Timure, Syabrubesi, and Rasuwagadhi have been erased. Homes, roads, hydropower stations, and the border crossing itself – a lifeline for the livelihoods of working people on both sides – have been swept away. 

Our Party salutes the rescue workers, soldiers, police personnel and above all the ordinary residents who have thrown themselves into search and relief operations under extremely dangerous conditions. We convey our fraternal solidarity to the people of Nepal and China, and we welcome the cooperation between the two governments in the emergency response. We urge the international community to respond swiftly and without conditions to Nepal’s appeal for assistance. 

This disaster must not be treated as a misfortune of nature alone. The Himalayan ice is melting under a climate crisis that the peoples of South Asia did not create. Disasters of this kind are the direct inheritance of two centuries of imperialist exploitation, whose historical emissions are now paid for in the lives of villagers in Nepal. 

As a country that has itself buried its dead after floods and landslides, Sri Lanka's working people stand with the people of Nepal and China in their grief and in their recovery.

International Department

27 August 2026