"There's always a chance." Sister of Belarusian Katsiaryna Sakovich, who disappeared in Nepal, shares updates on her search
On August 26, a strong flood occurred in northern Nepal and its border regions with China: after an earthquake and a mudflow, the Bhote Koshi river overflowed its banks, destroying villages, roads, and hydroelectric power plants. According to current data from the Nepalese side, the death toll from the disaster has already exceeded 1,000 people. More than 3,900 others are considered missing. Among them is one citizen of Belarus, 41-year-old Katsiaryna Sakovich, whom we wrote about earlier. The "Onliner" publication contacted her sister Daryna, who lives in Israel and is currently coordinating assistance in her search.
Who is Katsiaryna Sakovich and how did she end up in Nepal?
Katsiaryna is a native of Grodno, but has lived in Milan for the past 16 years. The girl is passionate about spiritual practices and meditations, having received a diploma in this field in India.
"Katska is a very bright person, she's a mischief-maker and travels a lot, engaging in spiritual development," her sister Daryna describes her. "Of course, my whole family wasn't very happy about her travels to not-so-safe places. But no one knew that this [trip to Tibet] would be dangerous. She wasn't going to Everest, or Elbrus, or any other extreme places."
The Belarusian woman's August trip was related to kora — a ritual circumambulation of the sacred Mount Kailash in the southern Tibetan Plateau in China, near the border with Nepal. The pilgrimage route Katsiaryna planned to take includes 52 kilometers of walking and an ascent to an altitude of approximately 5600 meters.
The large group, organized by the Nepalese tour operator Leaf Holidays, consists of 55 people. In the subgroup of eight tourists, along with Katsiaryna, there were seven other citizens of Ukraine and a Nepalese guide who accompanied them. None of them have been found or contacted yet.
What happened on August 26 and how are the searches progressing?
At 6:30 AM Nepalese time (3:45 AM Minsk time), Katsiaryna sent a video to the family chat, reporting that she was leaving the border village of Timure for the Rasuwagadhi border checkpoint. It was through this point, as it later became known, that a powerful impact from one of the first flows of water, mud, and stones occurred.
It is unknown whether the Belarusian group was at the checkpoint at that exact moment, but if so, the tourists could have been at the very epicenter of the disaster. According to sources verified by Daryna, contact with any of the group members was last made at 8:30 AM Nepalese time (5:45 AM in Minsk).
"Our dad saw in the news that a landslide had occurred and contacted me almost immediately. We started to go crazy, reading all the news, but there were many fakes and inaccuracies. Then I started monitoring official sources, contacting the foreign ministries of all countries."
Apocalyptic floods and a massive landslide have devastated parts of Tibet and Nepal
The scale of destruction is hard to comprehend pic.twitter.com/2hLlg3BiPO
This refers not only to the departments of Belarus, Nepal, and China. Katsiaryna recently received an Israeli passport, and she also has a residence permit in Italy. But since the tourist entered Nepal with Belarusian documents, she is listed as a citizen of Belarus only in all missing persons lists.
From the first day of the search, Daryna insisted that Katsiaryna also be listed as a citizen of Israel. Israeli diplomats have already confirmed their readiness to provide consular assistance, and Italian authorities have also responded to requests from relatives. However, due to the emergency, communication with Nepal and China remains slow – data in the lists have not yet been adjusted.
"The thing is, if my sister is suddenly unconscious somewhere in a hospital, these discrepancies could mean that we won't get information about it right away. And for me and my whole family, it's very important to find out as soon as possible that she has been found. All of this is being done only to get information as quickly as possible.
On the Belarusian and Israeli sides, I am in direct communication with ambassadors, consuls, and emergency lines. For example, I called the 24-hour line of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs — everyone there is fully aware of everything. They explained how diplomatic missions work, as I hadn't dealt with this before. They calmly provide information, offer support, understanding that I am a person under stress. From this point of view, the structures are working well, including the Belarusian ones."
Currently, Katsiaryna is considered missing only in Nepalese lists — most likely because her group either did not travel far into Chinese territory or did not manage to cross the border at all. This opinion is shared by Leaf Holidays tour agency head Gopal Thapa, with whom Daryna also maintains contact.
The Chinese side has not yet officially confirmed the group's border crossing.
"I will go around hospitals"
Daryna, along with her boyfriend, is flying to Kathmandu tomorrow to participate in the search for her sister on site. The Israeli Foreign Ministry has sent the girl for DNA testing — a standard procedure for relatives of missing persons.
"What will be done in Nepal? I intend to launch the same activities that I started in Israel. I will continue to pressure local media so that the Ministries of Foreign Affairs [of Nepal and China] provide information about the second citizenship as quickly as possible. This will be done sooner or later; media coverage simply speeds up these processes.
I will go around hospitals, finding out by all means what, how, and why is happening there. Entering hospitals, looking for people who cannot identify themselves, or people on ventilators. Checking with my own eyes and hands. Because the information received is varied: sometimes there are no foreigners, sometimes there's confusion... The situation can change at any moment. My goal is also to arrive at some headquarters as soon as possible to check all the information they will give me. All of this is so that my family doesn't go crazy from uncertainty."
Having studied similar cases, the Belarusian woman assures that there are chances of survival, even when in the epicenter of a mudflow, and therefore Daryna is not going to lose hope of finding her sister.
"There is official data that people (exhausted, of course), who didn't even have access to water, survived even two weeks under rubble. So despite how alarming, frightening, and for some, hopeless everything looks, there is always a chance."
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