KATHMANDU: More than 1,000 people went missing in Nepal during a decade of bloody civil war and the numbers are still rising, the Red Cross said on Wednesday, the eve of International Day of the Disappeared.

Mary Werntz, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Nepal, said the extent of the problem was only now becoming clear, as more and more families came forward in search of lost relatives.

“The ICRC list now contains 1042 names,” she said. “Families didn’t come forward to report about their missing relatives due to various reasons during the insurgency.” Werntz noted that many families do not know whether their missing relatives are dead or alive.

Nepal’s government and former rebel Maoists reached a peace deal in November 2006, ending a civil war that left at least 13,000 people dead in the Himalayan nation.

Rights groups have accused both the rebels and security forces of grave human rights abuses, including abductions, extra-judicial killings and torture during the conflict.—AFP