DUSHANBE, January 27, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- 189 natural disasters that occurred in Tajikistan in 2009 left 45 dead, Khaybullo Latipov, head of the Committee for Emergency Situations (CES), announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on January 26.

According to him, 2,343 residential buildings were damaged by natural disasters last year; 500 houses were destroyed completely.

“Damage caused by last year’s natural disasters has been estimated at 100.767 million somoni,” Latipov said, noting that the government provided 1.423 million somoni worth of humanitarian aid to disaster-affected families last year.