‘LARGE-SCALE LOSS OF LIFE’ IN MYANMAR AFTER POWERFUL CYCLONE MOCHA

Tue 16 May 2023:

The violent storm that hit Myanmar on Sunday killed at least 40 people, and the death toll could grow further, BBC reported.

One relief organisation has warned that rescuers are ready for “a large scale loss of life” in Myanmar after devastating Cyclone Mocha slammed into the country’s west coast, ripping down houses and uprooting trees in one of the fiercest storms to ever pound the country.

Cyclone Mocha was one of the strongest storms to make landfall in the region this century, packing winds of about 209km/h (130mph).

Most confirmed deaths are in Rakhine state, in central Myanmar, others in Sagaing and Magway regions.

Hundreds of people are feared to have died after a powerful cyclone hit Myanmar on Sunday, with rescue groups warning of “a large scale loss of life” following one of the strongest storms to ever hit the country.#CycloneMochaUpdate pic.twitter.com/ndlbiCw4jH

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) May 16, 2023

The military have announced 21 deaths nationwide.

At least 41 people have died and dozens more are missing in Rakhine, according to Agence France-Presse reporters and NGOs on the ground.

Largely impoverished and isolated, Rakhine has in recent years been the site of widespread political violence.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya remain in Rakhine, mostly confined to camps where authorities place strict controls on their movement.

It is in these poorly constructed camps that aid agencies fear Cyclone Mocha has hit the hardest.

Hundreds of people are feared to have died after a powerful cyclone hit Myanmar on Sunday, with rescue groups warning of “a large scale loss of life” following one of the strongest storms to ever hit the country.#CycloneMocha pic.twitter.com/G6aLy9XWPv

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) May 16, 2023

A large-scale loss of life in the camps

There has been “a large-scale loss of life in the camps,” said Brad Hazlett, president of the non-government organization, Partners Relief and Development.

“We are unable to say an exact number, but know of one small village we have connected with today where we have provided toilets and hand water pumps in the last year. That village was totally destroyed by the cyclone and at least 20 people have lost their life there,” he said.

“Myanmar is facing a storm on many fronts, with reports that the Myanmar army attacked villages in other regions while Cyclone Mocha unfolded in Rakhine state. The needs of families continue to be great,” NGO Partners Relief & Development, which works in the cyclone-hit Rakhine state, said in a Twitter post on Tuesday.

In Sittwe, the capital city in Rakhine state, where many people live in low-lying coastal areas, roads have been blocked by uprooted trees and fallen power pylons.

About 90% of the shelters at a Rohingya refugee camp near Sittwe have been destroyed, resident Aung Zaw Hein told CNN.

“The people become homeless, shelterless, some people even become powerless. The same situation has repeated again in our life for the Rohingya people,” he said.

Hein said he saw the bodies of children, and elderly and pregnant women lying on the ground after the cyclone and he had performed Islamic funeral prayers for eight victims.

About 750,000 people fled low-lying areas ahead of Mocha’s landfall last Sunday. It came 15 years after one of Asia’s deadliest cyclones, Nargis, smashed into Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta and claimed 140,000 lives.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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