At least 647 people are missing and 160 have died after a catastrophic surge of floodwater, mud and debris swept through Himalayan valleys in Nepal and Tibet, leaving communities devastated on both sides of the China-Nepal border.

The combined figure of missing people comprises 391 reported missing in Nepal, including 291 foreigners and 265 in Tibet, according to Nepali authorities and Chinese state media respectively.

Nepal reported 157 deaths, while Chinese state media said three people had died in Tibet, bringing the reported death toll across the two sides to 160.

The disaster has triggered a large-scale search and rescue operation as authorities race to locate hundreds of people, including foreign tourists, pilgrims, border officials, security personnel and residents caught in the sudden flooding.

The disaster struck a region of profound religious significance, which was crowded with pilgrims and trekkers travelling towards sacred sites in the Himalayas.

The route through Rasuwa is used by pilgrims heading to Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar in Tibet, revered by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains, while local Nepali pilgrims were also trekking towards Gosaikunda Lake, a sacred Hindu and Buddhist site, for religious observances.

Many of those caught in the floods were therefore not simply tourists passing through the region but pilgrims undertaking journeys of worship, with hundreds of Kailash-bound travellers reportedly waiting to cross into Tibet when the disaster struck.

More than 100 Indian nationals were among those unaccounted for, alongside visitors from Britain, the United States, Australia, the Netherlands, Malaysia and South Africa.

In Tibet, the Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported 265 people missing after a mudslide struck the Gyirong border port, a key crossing between Tibet and Nepal.

Footage released by Chinese state media showed a torrent of water and mud surging through the port, overwhelming buildings, uprooting trees and cutting off roads.

The disaster also caused extensive damage in Nepal, with at least 19 vehicle bridges and about 40 kilometres of roads swept away.

Schools, hydropower installations and other infrastructure were also damaged as floodwaters tore through riverside settlements.

The scale and suddenness of the flooding initially left authorities struggling to establish what had triggered the disaster.

Nepal’s Foreign Minister, Shisir Khanal, said the government had received preliminary information that an avalanche had occurred in the affected region.

The United States Geological Survey initially detected ground movement equivalent to a 5.2-magnitude earthquake, but later determined that the seismic energy had been generated by a landslide.

Scientists investigating the disaster said their preliminary assessment indicated that an ice avalanche may have triggered the catastrophic flooding.

The apparent absence of heavy rainfall made the flooding particularly unexpected.

“There was no rain in Nepal, so we were not expecting anything like this,” said Narendra Pariyar, the chief district officer of Rasuw, according to a report by The New York Times.

The affected region is a major pilgrimage and trekking corridor, with thousands of visitors travelling through Nepal towards Mount Kailash in Tibet.

Among those missing are Indian pilgrims travelling towards the Tibetan border. The Isha Foundation said 77 people participating in its pilgrimage tours were at an immigration centre near the Nepal-Tibet border.

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia leaving at least 224 people killed while rescue teams continued searching the collapsed buildings for survivors on Tuesday.

The earthquake struck at 7:34 am local time on Monday, with Cali, Pereira and parts of the Choco region among the worst affected areas.

Authorities warned that the death toll could rise as emergency teams reach more affected communities and assess the extent of the destruction.

Cali authorities reported 35 deaths, while officials in the Risaralda region, where Pereira is located, confirmed at least 40 deaths. Nine people were also reported killed in Choco, two in Caldas and one in Antioquia.

At least 700 people were injured in Valle del Cauca alone, according to President Abelardo de la Espriella, who declared a national state of emergency and said the government’s priority was to rescue people trapped under rubble.

More than 1,600 buildings were reportedly damaged or destroyed, including parts of a historic cathedral in Manizales.

Several upper floors of a hospital in Cali also collapsed, trapping some patients and forcing about 600 others to receive treatment outside amid the debris.
Rescue operations continued overnight and into Tuesday, with soldiers, firefighters, emergency workers, volunteers and relatives searching through collapsed buildings.
In Cali, volunteers formed human chains to remove concrete and other debris by hand, while rescue teams repeatedly stopped to listen for survivors.
Firefighters rescued two women and two children from a collapsed building, while rescuers in Pereira were reportedly in contact with a boy trapped beneath a bakery as cranes were used to remove unstable sections of the building.

Authorities have also deployed engineers, rescue workers and search dogs to Choco, where the scale of the destruction remains unclear because many communities are remote and difficult to reach.
The United States Geological Survey identified San Jose del Palmar, a community of about 4,800 people, as the epicentre. The area is about 400km west of the capital, Bogota.
Colombia’s Geological Service reported 21 aftershocks by late Monday and warned that further tremors were possible.
The rescue effort has been complicated by the geography of Choco, where some communities can only be reached by boat or aircraft.

The government has also imposed nighttime curfews in Cali, Armenia and Manizales, while hospitals in five cities were placed on red alert.
Operations at airports in Pereira, Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago and Buenaventura were suspended temporarily to allow structural inspections.
Authorities postponed the Petronio Alvarez Music Festival in Cali, which was scheduled to begin on Wednesday, as well as professional football matches.
International assistance has also begun. The United States announced $15.5m in emergency aid for shelters, food and other relief, while the European Union activated its Copernicus satellite service to support rescue operations.
El Salvador and Mexico also offered to provide rescue teams, medical personnel, supplies and other assistance.
Rescuers are expected to face a critical window in the coming hours as they continue searching for people trapped beneath the rubble.

Traore has opened a new front with Burkina Faso’s Muslim community over arrests.
New legislation and arrests are driving a rift between Burkina Faso’s military government and Muslim scholars.

Captain Ibrahim Traore’s relationship with Muslim leaders has come under strain as his government tightens control over religious affairs.

Burkina Faso’s transitional leader Ibrahim Traore has announced plans to bring back students studying Islamic law in Arab countries

Once backed by influential Muslim scholars, Burkina Faso’s military leader is now facing a growing rift over arrests, new legislation and his campaign against what he describes as religious extremism.

Burkina Faso’s transitional leader, Captain Ibrahim Traore, has sharply escalated his confrontation with influential Muslim scholars, declaring that what he calls “radical Islam” has no place in the country and warning that “the battle has begun” against those he accuses of promoting religious extremism.

Addressing scholars whom he accused of spreading extremist ideas, Traore declared: “If this is your Islam, we will fight it. Extremists must change. If they do not, the battle has begun.”

His remarks underscore a widening rift between the government and parts of Burkina Faso’s Muslim community. Once an important source of support for the military leader, several influential Sunni scholars are now at odds with the authorities over the Religious Freedoms Law, the detention of prominent imams and the government’s campaign against religious extremism.

Traore argued that religion should spread through example rather than coercion or violence. He also questioned why some Muslims opposed the new legislation and warned that imams who use sermons to promote extremist ideas would be suspended.

At the same time, he pledged state support for scholars who advocate what he described as a peaceful interpretation of Islam, while accusing foreign powers of exploiting religion to destabilise Burkina Faso.

Students studying abroad
Traore also announced plans to recall Burkinabe students studying Islamic law in Arab countries, claiming that more than 800,000 were pursuing religious education abroad without acquiring practical professional skills.

He warned that those who refuse to return could risk losing their Burkinabe citizenship.

The announcement followed a government directive issued in late June requiring students seeking to study abroad to obtain prior approval from the Ministry of Higher Education.

Authorities said the measure was intended to ensure overseas study programmes better align with the country’s development priorities.

The tighter controls on religious education came as Burkina Faso’s transitional parliament unanimously adopted the Religious Freedoms Law on June 20.

The government says the legislation is intended to reinforce the state’s secular character. It introduces prison terms and fines for practices that authorities classify as religious abuses, including the forced begging of children and breaches of financial transparency rules by religious organisations.

From ally to adversary
The law deepened already growing tensions between the government and sections of the Muslim community.

In late May, Imam Mohamed Ishaq Kindo, one of Burkina Faso’s most prominent Sunni scholars, was arrested after criticising the draft legislation.

Referring to the arrest and the protests that followed, Traore dismissed the unrest as the work of “a small minority of extremists”.

After worshippers gathered to demand Kindo’s release, authorities closed the largest Sunni mosque in the capital, Ouagadougou, citing public order concerns.

Agence France-Presse (AFP), citing a security source, reported that about 100 of the imam’s supporters were transferred to a military camp for what officials described as “civic training”.

Kindo’s arrest followed the mid-April detention of Imam Mahmoud Barro in Bobo-Dioulasso under similar circumstances. According to the Timbuktu Institute, a Dakar-based think tank specialising in peace and security issues, Kindo’s whereabouts have not been disclosed since the protests were suppressed.

According to the institute, the confrontation extends beyond the Religious Freedoms Law. It marks the breakdown of the tacit understanding that had developed between Traore’s government and influential Muslim scholars, whose backing helped bolster his standing after he seized power.

By turning against former allies, the institute argues, Traore risks weakening an important source of political legitimacy without resolving the security crisis that his government has used to justify its increasingly assertive measures.

An Israeli dimension
Alongside the domestic tensions, Traore recently received Israel’s new ambassador to Burkina Faso, Simon Seroussi, in Ouagadougou to present his credentials.

The meeting followed a report by Africa Intelligence, a Paris-based publication specialising in African political and business affairs, that the ambassador’s accreditation request, submitted in the summer of 2025, had remained pending before being quietly approved.

Traore’s public reception of the ambassador appears to mark a shift from the caution previously shown by his inner circle, which had sought to preserve his anti-Western image. It also comes as Israeli security agencies expand cooperation with members of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), the bloc formed by Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, whose governments have expressed interest in Israeli security technology.

As Traore declares that “the battle has begun” against what he describes as religious extremism, while the Religious Freedoms Law takes effect and the fate of detained scholars remains unclear, a broader question emerges: will the government’s efforts to assert greater control over sources of public legitimacy strengthen its authority, or deepen its confrontation with one of Burkina Faso’s most influential social forces?