MYANMAR: Voicing concerns over the disaster caused by Cyclone Mocha, the UN on Friday said that at least 800,000 people in Myanmar need emergency food aid and other assistance.
Conflict hit Myanmar and neighborhing Bangladesh witnessed heavy rains and winds of up to 195 kilometres (120 miles) per hour on Sunday, killing nearly 145 as revealed by Myanmar junta.
The UN’s World Food Programme described “a trail of devastation” across Myanmar’s Rakhine State, a region that is home to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who live in displacement camps following decades of ethnic conflict.
The cyclone left “houses flattened, roads cut off by uprooted trees, hospitals and schools destroyed, and telecommunications and power lines severely disrupted,” Anthea Webb, WFP’s deputy regional director for Asia and the Pacific, told reporters in Geneva via video conferencing from Bangkok. She added that greater needs for food, shelter, water, health and other humanitarian aid are expected to be revealed as authorities reach more areas.
Though Bangladesh was spared a direct hit, nearly half a million Rohingyas are said to have lost their homes and assets.
WFP is currently reaching out populace residing in the areas bordering Bangladesh with cash that would help them recover. Atleast 28,000 alone in the bordering regions are said to be affected. In Myanmar, WFP had begun emergency food distributions to families in evacuation shelters in Rakhine state and the neighbouring Magway region.
Since last Friday, authorities evacuated 63,302 of the 125,789 Rohingya sheltering in 17 camps in 17 townships including Sittwe. Coastal regions of Rakhine took the heaviest hit from the cyclone with severe impacts across the northwest and some damage in Kachin (state) according to media reports.
Mocha made landfall near Sittwe township in Rakhine state on Sunday afternoon with winds of up to 209 kilometres per hour before weakening inland. The cyclone was the nation’s most destructive in at least a decade, brought widespread flash floods and power outages, while high winds tore roofs off buildings and crumpled cellphone towers.