AT least seven people are dead and three others remain missing after a wave of landslides tore through Kota Kinabalu, Papar and Penampang on Monday, compounding days of floods, blackouts and treated water disruptions that have pushed Sabah into crisis on the eve of Malaysia Day.
The longest spell of rainfall began Sunday evening and barely let up through Monday morning, triggering slope failures across several districts.
The worst collapse was at Kampung Cenderakasih in Kota Kinabalu, where a cluster of timber houses built on private hillside land gave way. Police said 11 people were inside when tonnes of mud, trees and household waste buried them.
By late morning, four teenage boys were pulled out alive, one with a broken leg. A young child’s body was recovered soon after. At about 2.30pm, rescuers uncovered three more children, all dead, beneath the same rubble.
That brought the confirmed toll at the site to four, with two others, a 24-year-old woman and a boy aged about nine, still unaccounted for.
“They were all in the house when the landslide happened,” city police chief Kasim Muda said, adding that debris was piled as deep as three metres.
“We suspect some of the victims may not be Malaysian citizens, but verification is ongoing.”
The site has been swarming with 76 personnel from the police, fire and rescue, civil defence and health ministry. Evacuation orders have since gone out to other families living along unstable slopes nearby.
In Papar, two separate landslides were reported just hours apart. At Kampung Maragang Tuntul, three people were caught when a timber house collapsed at 9.20am.
Two were rescued alive; one remains missing. About 40 minutes later, another landslide in Kampung Mook buried three houses.
Firefighters arrived to find two victims, a 38-year-old woman and her 11-year-old son, already dead. The operation ended by mid-afternoon, with the site still under watch for further slope movement.
Last week, a 97-year-old man died in Kampung Sarapung, Penampang, after his house was swallowed by a separate landslide.
The combined toll makes this the deadliest rain-related disaster in Sabah in more than a decade, eclipsing the 2014 floods that killed two and the 2021–22 floods that claimed three lives.
Search and rescue work is continuing across the state. The Public Works Department has logged 89 incidents between September 8 and 15, including 42 landslides, 18 flash floods and 10 road collapses.
As of Monday, 26 roads remain closed. A high-voltage transmission tower also collapsed on Saturday in Penampang, cutting electricity to six east coast districts, Sandakan, Semporna, Beluran, Lahad Datu, Kinabatangan and Kunak, affecting close to one million residents.
The crisis deepened in Sandakan with water supply disruptions from the Segaliud treatment plant. Libaran MP Datuk Suhaimi Hj Nasir accused the GRS-led state government of failing to act decisively on the recurring outages.
“The disruption has affected thousands of residents and paralysed daily life across Sandakan. This is not the first time, it is a long-standing burden on the people,” he said.
Suhaimi, who is also UMNO Sabah information chief, said the issue had been raised repeatedly in both the Sabah State Assembly and Parliament. He criticised what he described as weak governance and lack of urgency in repairing Segaliud, and called for a proper contingency plan.
“Even when allocations have been channelled, weaknesses in implementation and the state’s failure to act proactively, especially the Works Ministry, are deeply disappointing,” he said.
He added that frustration was mounting, with confidence in the state government eroding further. “People are not asking for empty promises, they are asking for concrete action. Do not let them continue to suffer from avoidable administrative failures.”
Official figures show 428 people from 115 households have been displaced across 23 villages.
Four relief centres are open in Beaufort, Penampang and Tawau. Penampang alone accounts for 201 evacuees, Beaufort 168, and Tawau 59.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor announced the cancellation of the state-level Malaysia Day celebration scheduled for Tuesday night at Padang Merdeka. He said the government’s focus must now be entirely on disaster response.
“The State government’s immediate priority is to manage the crisis, coordinate recovery efforts and ensure timely rescue operations for affected communities,” Hajiji said in a statement.
“In this time of difficulty, the well-being, welfare and security of the people are of utmost importance. We must direct all focus and resources to those affected.”
He said the State Disaster Management Committee, chaired by State Secretary Safar Untong, was in round-the-clock session to track developments.
“I urge the public to remain vigilant, follow safety advisories and cooperate fully with rescue teams as efforts are being intensified across the state,” he added.
Meanwhile rescue of the three-person missing continues. - September 15, 2025
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