Cyclone Mocha has left more than 80 dead as it swept through Burma, according to the latest tally of authorities in the Southeast Asian country, as affected residents began rebuilding their homes and waited for help to arrive.
Typhoon Mocha made landfall on Sunday with a speed of 195 km/h, toppling power poles and Destroy fishing boats. At least 46 people were killed in Boma and nearby Khong Dok Kar villages in Rakhine State, home to the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority, local leaders told AFP.
Thirteen people also died when a monastery collapsed in a village in Rathedaung township, north of Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine, and a woman died when a building collapsed in a nearby village, according to Myanmar’s state-run MRTV. “There will be more deaths because more than 100 people are missing,” said Carlo, a local chief from Boma village.
The last outcome of the ruling military council in the country on Monday was five dead and an unspecified number of wounded.
Indescribable pain
Near Bo Ma village, a 66-year-old man prayed at the grave of his daughter, whose body was found on Tuesday morning. “I was not in good health before the hurricane, so it took us a long time to move to another place,” he told AFP. “As we were thinking of evacuating, the waves immediately came and swept us away,” said one resident.
The man said he found his daughter’s body in the village lake and buried her immediately. «I have no words to express my lossHe claimed. Other residents traveled to the coast in search of relatives who had been swept away by the storm that came with the hurricane.
Cyclone Mocha is the strongest cyclone to hit this region in a decade, uprooting trees and cutting communications across much of Rakhine State. Rohingya villages and camps have also been destroyed.
China said it was “ready to provide emergency disaster relief,” according to a statement posted on the Facebook page of Beijing’s embassy in Myanmar.
China said it was “ready to provide emergency relief in case of disasters”.
The Rohingya are considered outsiders in Myanmar, where they lack the right to citizenship and health care, and need permission to leave their villages in Rakhine. Part of this minority lives in camps for the displaced after decades of conflict.
storm blow
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it was investigating several reports of Rohingya residents living in camps who had apparently died from the storm.
The UN office added that it is “working to initiate a rapid needs assessment in the most affected areasFrom Rakhine state. In Bangladesh, the neighboring country that borders Rakhine State to the north, the authorities told AFP that there were no casualties from the cyclone.
Mocha passed close to camps housing nearly a million Rohingya who arrived from Myanmar fleeing a military crackdown in 2017. “Although the impact of the cyclone could have been much worse, the refugee camps areAnd they were deeply affected On Monday, the United Nations said in an urgent appeal that thousands of people needed urgent assistance.
