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At least two dead and several others wounded as landslide hits an area near Torkham border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Islamabad, Pakistan – A huge landslide in northwestern Pakistan has killed at least two people, wounded eight others and buried several vehicles, according to officials.

The landslide occurred early on Tuesday near Torkham, a key border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

“Rescue officials were informed of a landslide before dawn near Torkham border after rain and thunderstorm, which buried many trucks and containers,” Bilal Faizi, spokesman for the Rescue 1122 service in the province, told Al Jazeera.

“We have so far recovered two dead people while there were eight injured, of which four have been sent to hospital,” he added.

Faizi said authorities have launched a search operation to look for people trapped under the landslide. He said there could be more than 20 vehicles, including large trucks, under the rubble.

“This is not a small landslide that can be cleaned up quickly. We have more than 60 people working here to remove the rubble. It’s like an entire mountain has collapsed,” he said.

The Torkham crossing was closed for more than a week in February this year due to tensions between Pakistani and Afghanistani authorities following clashes along the border.

More to follow.

Bodies of eight women, 13 children discovered after the landslide hit a river in the locality of Bolowa on Sunday.

At least 21 people have died and several others are missing a day after a landslide in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The bodies of eight women and 13 children were discovered after the landslide hit a river in the locality of Bolowa on Sunday as people were washing clothes and cleaning kitchenware, said Voltaire Batundi, a civil society leader in the wider Masisi territory.

One person survived and has been taken to a health centre, he added.

“We think that maybe in the mud there are still other bodies,” he told Reuters news agency by phone.

Search efforts have continued on Monday, a spokesperson for the governor of North Kivu province, which includes Masisi, said.

Fabrice Muphirwa Kubuya, head of the Osso-Banyungu civil society group, said that “the landslide occurred at around midday in the village of Bulwa”, putting the provisional death toll at 30, as quoted by Anadolu Agency.

He added that the mudslide may have been triggered by days of heavy rainfall.

At least 16 people have been killed and 16 others injured after a massive landslide buried dozens of homes in an Andean community in central Ecuador, the country’s emergency response agency reported.

Ecuador’s Risk Management Secretariat said on Monday that seven people remained missing hours after the rain-fuelled landslide hit Alausi, a small town about 317km (197 miles) south of the capital, Quito, on Sunday night.

The agency estimated that 500 people and 163 homes were affected by the disaster, which also destroyed a portion of the Pan-American Highway.

The governor of Chimborazo, Ivan Vinueza, said that some of the injured have been taken to area hospitals. He added that residents and rescuers have been ordered to evacuate the area due to the imminent risk of new landslides.

Residents told local media they heard tremors on the mountain before the landslide, which is estimated to be about 150m (490 feet) wide.

Firefighters from half a dozen cities were dispatched to the area to help.

Seven people are missing as rescuers clear debris after a wave of mud and debris swept through the small town of Alausi.

More than a dozen people have been killed after heavy rains caused a mudslide in southern Ecuador.

In a statement on Monday, Ecuador’s Risk Management Secretariat (SNGR) said at least 16 people were killed and about 500 others were affected by a wave of mud and debris that swept through the small community of Alausi on Sunday night.

“We have had to witness a terrible tragedy,” Transport Minister Dario Herrera told the Reuters news agency in Alausi, located in central Ecuador about 317km (197 miles) south of the capital, Quito.

“The first thing is to attend to and evacuate people from the houses,” Herrera said.

Debido a los deslizamientos de tierra en Alausí he dispuesto la activación inmediata de @Riesgos_Ec y de todas las carteras del Estado. En estos momentos se están movilizando equipos de bomberos de Guamote, Chunchi, Riobamba y Cuenca para la atención a ciudadanos afectados.

— Guillermo Lasso (@LassoGuillermo) March 27, 2023

President Guillermo Lasso declared a state of emergency earlier this month in 14 provinces impacted by extreme weather.

Twenty-two people have been killed due to heavy rainfall since the beginning of the year as the Andean nation struggles to cope with the downpour.

SNGR said that 16 people were injured and seven remain missing following the landslide in Alausi, where images from local media showed civilians and emergency workers looking through debris with only torches to guide them.

Lasso said in a Twitter post that firefighters had been sent to assist residents.

“The Government is fully active serving all affected areas,” Lasso said.

According to SNGR, heavy rains have triggered more than 1,000 dangerous events such as flooding and mudslides since the beginning of the year, damaging more than 6,900 homes and destroying 72.

Earlier this month, a strong earthquake in the states of El Oro and Azuay killed 13 people and injured at least 126 others.

In February 2022, heavy rains also triggered massive flooding in Quito that killed at least 24 people.

In a statement at the time, authorities said that 75 litres of rain per square metre inundated the city’s La Gasca sector.

Landslide swept through homes in remote Serasan island on the edge of the South China Sea.

At least 15 people have been killed, with dozens missing after torrential rains and landslides hit Indonesia’s Natuna region on the edge of the South China Sea.

Pictures and video from the national disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) showed landslides cascading through forested areas and dumping mud and debris on houses on the remote Serasan island.

Bits of metal from torn-off roofs and fallen trees were also visible following the disaster on Monday.

The location of the landslide and continued rain were complicating search and rescue efforts, the BNPB said on Twitter. Communications had also been cut off, it said.

The Natuna Search and Rescue Agency’s head, Abdul Rahman, told the AFP news agency that 15 people had been confirmed dead and 50 were missing.

“The weather is changing. The wind is still blowing hard. The tidal waves are high,” said Junainah, the spokesperson for the Riau Islands Disaster Mitigation Agency, who goes by one name.

Berdasarkan laporan yang dihimpun Pusat Pengendali dan Operasi (Pusdalops) Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana (BNPB) sore tadi, peristiwa itu dipicu oleh intensitas curah hujan yang tinggi ditambah kondisi tanah yang labil. pic.twitter.com/OZz7RHm37v

— BNPB Indonesia (@BNPB_Indonesia) March 6, 2023

A 60-person search and rescue team left for the island on Monday afternoon, with the journey expected to take 7 to 8 hours by fast boat.

BNPB spokesperson Abdul Muhari said a helicopter would be deployed on Tuesday to speed up the logistics delivery process.

A main road in the area was also cut off because of the landslides, further hampering the evacuation process.

Indonesia is prone to landslides during the rainy season, aggravated in some places by deforestation, and prolonged torrential rain has caused flooding in different areas of the archipelago nation.

Experts say the country’s weather-related disasters are probably being made worse by climate change.

Rescue efforts continue as precipitation soaks regions like Arequipa, a centre for recent antigovernment protests.

A landslide in southern Peru has left at least eight people dead and five more missing, as torrential rain washes through the region on Monday.

Twenty more people were treated for minor injuries, according to a bureau for Peru’s Ministry of Health in the mountainous town of Secocha, where the landslide took place.

Located on the banks of the Ocoña River in Camaná province, Secocha is among the areas in the department of Arequipa facing high water levels as heavy rain continues to fall. As of Monday morning, the Ocoña was flowing at a rate of 585.6 cubic metres per second, with the Peruvian government warning that the swollen river could affect nearby population centres.

To address the aftermath of the landslide, the Ministry of Health has announced on Twitter that it would send “two brigades made up of doctors, nurses and mental health professionals to the area”, as well as 150kg of medicine to the region.

The Peruvian army has also deployed helicopters to the region, transporting humanitarian aid, drinking water and sandbags to the emergency site.

“Search and rescue efforts continue,” the Ministry of Defence said in a tweet that called out misinformation surrounding the landslide. With some media reports setting the death toll as high as 36, the ministry wrote it recommended that members of the public “obtain information from official sources”.

The Associated Press news agency reports that Wilson Gutierrez, a civil defence official in the Mariano Nicolás Valcárcel municipality, had previously said in an interview with radio station RPP that 36 people had died in an isolated area called Miski. RPP News also reported that some of the dead had been struck by falling rocks as they travelled by truck along the Urasqui-Secocha highway.

The landslide strikes amid ongoing antigovernment demonstrations in Peru, many of which are concentrated in southern regions like Arequipa.

The protests were sparked in December when then-President Pedro Castillo attempted to dissolve Congress illegally ahead of his third impeachment hearing. The move led Congress to overwhelmingly impeach Castillo, who has since been detained on charges of rebellion and conspiracy.

His former vice president, Dina Boluarte, was sworn in as Peru’s first female president that same day.

Castillo, once considered a dark horse candidate for the presidency, is a former school teacher and union organiser from Peru’s rural north. His presidency galvanised support in other impoverished, rural areas of the country, including Arequipa, where protesters stormed the airport and blocked highways in response to his arrest.

The demonstrations against Castillo’s detention have continued for more than two months, with protesters calling for Castillo’s release, Boluarte’s removal, the dissolution of Congress, new elections and a revised constitution.

Rescue efforts were halted overnight due to heavy rain but resumed on Saturday morning with sniffer dogs and excavators.

Rescue workers in Malaysia continue to search for 12 people still missing following a landslide that engulfed a campsite, killing 21 others, including five children.

Rescue efforts were hampered temporarily overnight on Friday due to heavy rain but picked back up in the early morning hours on Saturday as emergency response workers scrambled to locate any signs of life or human remains.

Rescue dogs and excavators were deployed to assist the rescue workers who used shovels to sift through mud and uprooted trees in search of victims.

Survivors said they had heard a deafening boom and that the earth shook before they were buried by the landslide inside their tents. According to officials, 94 people were sleeping at the Batang Kali campground on an organic farm northeast of the capital Kuala Lumpur when part of a hillside collapsed, sending mud and trees cascading from a road about 30 metres (some 100 feet) above the site.

All the victims were reportedly sleeping at the time the landslide – which covered approximately one hectare (2.5 acres) of land – enveloped their tents.

A total of 21 bodies have been removed from the site so far. An additional seven people were hospitalised, including three Singaporean nationals.

The disaster is unfolding amid Malaysia’s monsoon season when torrential rains are known to trigger landslides in the region surrounding Kuala Lumpur.

 

pic.twitter.com/SrrftMEgBz

— Official Angkatan Pertahanan Awam Malaysia (@APMtwiter) December 17, 2022

 

Two of the victims, believed to be a mother and her young child, were found “in a state of embrace buried under the earth,” Norazam Khamis, director of the Selangor state fire and rescue department, told reporters on Friday.

Teh Lynn Xuan, 22, who was also camping at the site, said that her mother survived by crawling out of their tent after the landslide struck but said the destruction had killed one of her brothers and injured another.

“Everything happened too quickly,” she said.

“Let’s pray for the people of Malaysia and hope that this mission goes smoothly,” Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in a statement.

Located about 50km (30 miles) north of Kuala Lumpur, the farm was known for renting tents to campers and had become a bustling recreational attraction for families looking to escape from the capital.

Officials say the farm was ultimately unlicensed for camping activities. Authorities suspect it had been illegally operating the campground for at least the past two years. The site’s operator could now face prosecution.

 

Rescuers searching for dozens of others reported missing after a landslide in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde.

A landslide during a funeral ceremony in Cameroon’s capital has killed at least 14 people, the regional governor said, as rescuers continued the search for dozens of others who remain missing.

The disaster occurred on Sunday as people gathered on a football pitch at the base of a 20-metre-high soil embankment in Yaounde.

Witnesses told the Reuters news agency that the embankment collapsed on top of dozens of people.

“At the scene we counted 10 bodies, but before our arrival four bodies already had been taken away,” said Paul Bea, the governor of the Centre region that includes Yaounde.

“There are also a dozen serious cases dispersed in hospitals,” he said.

The governor described the area where the landslide took place as a “very dangerous spot” and encouraged people to stay away from the Damas district in Yaounde’s eastern outskirts.

Among those who survived was 50-year-old Marie Claire Mendouga.

“We had just started to dance when the ground collapsed,” she told the AFP news agency.

She said she “went to dig with my hands” to try to get people out from under the earth and was still covered in the brown clay from the site.

Landslides occur relatively frequently in Cameroon but are rarely as deadly as Sunday’s incident in Yaounde.

Forty-three people were killed in the western city of Bafoussam in 2019 when a landslide triggered by heavy rains swept away a dozen precarious dwellings built on the side of a hill.