At least 54 people were killed and more than 185,000 buildings damaged in Myanmar by a powerful cyclone last weekend, state television of Myanmar, MRTV reported Thursday.
Communication difficulties in the affected areas, where infrastructure was already poor, and the military government's tight control over information leave the actual extent of casualties and destruction unclear, reports AP.
Cyclone Mocha roared in from the Bay of Bengal on Sunday with high winds and rain slamming a corner of neighboring Bangladesh and a wider swath of western Myanmar's Rakhine state. It made landfall near Rakhine's Sittwe township with winds of up to 209 kilometers (130 miles) per hour before weakening to a tropical depression Monday as it moved inland.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said widescale destruction of homes and infrastructure was seen throughout Rakhine state.
"Urgent needs include shelter, clean water, food assistance and healthcare services," it said. "There are rising concerns in flooded areas about the spread of waterborne disease and the movement of landmines," a legacy of civil conflict that has been going on in Myanmar for decades.
"The impact of the cyclone was also felt heavily in the country's northwest where houses were blown or washed away. Strong winds and rains have also damaged camps for displaced people in Kachin state," the U.N. agency said.
Refugee camps in Bangladesh, where more than 700,000 members of Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya minority fled in 2017 to escape a brutal counterinsurgency campaign, missed the brunt of the storm with no reported deaths, thanks in part to a well-organized evacuation, but housing was severely damaged.
Many of the Rohingya who stayed in Myanmar after being made homeless by the 2017 attacks by security forces were settled in crowded displacement camps on the outskirts of Sittwe, where their ramshackle housing on low-lying land was reportedly swept away by the storm surge.
There are fears that there could be many fatalities in the Sittwe camps, but independent confirmation is difficult because of post-storm conditions and long-standing government restrictions meant to isolate the camps.
"Bridges have collapsed to the west of downtown Sittwe following #CycloneMocha, leaving only one access route to camps in the area," Ben Small, who works for the U.N. Development Program in Myanmar, said on Twitter. "This further hinders humanitarian access. They urgently need repairing."
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
