DUSHANBE (Reuters) - Landslides have killed at least 23 people in northern and eastern Tajikistan in the last two nights and 50 people are missing, an emergency ministry spokesman said on Thursday. Heavy rain in the mountainous Ashtsk and Dzhergataisk regions of the former Soviet republic caused the landslides, he said. A wall of water, rock and mud hit villages in the northern Ashtsk region last night, killing at least 18 people, destroying about 150 homes and damaging 200. In the northeastern Dzhergataisk area five people died when four yurts — circular tents still used in remote Central Asian areas — were swept away. Floods and landslides are frequent in the impoverished state of 5.7 million inhabitants. Official statistics show that 354 people died in all kinds of natural disasters in Tajikistan last year.