Hundreds, mostly Rohingya Muslims, feared dead after Cyclone Mocha hits western Myanmar

Residents and humanitarian organisations said on Tuesday that hundreds of people, mostly Rohingya Muslims, were presumed dead after a storm hit Myanmar over the weekend, with rescue attempts delayed by infrastructural damage.

Myanmar’s impoverished Rakhine State suffered the brunt of Cyclone Mocha, which brought winds of up to 210 kph (130 mph) and a storm surge that overwhelmed the state capital Sittwe.

The region is home to a sizable number of Rohingya Muslims, a persecuted minority that successive Myanmar administrations have refused to acknowledge. More than a million people live in huge camps in adjacent Bangladesh, having fled recent military crackdowns.

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Myanmar has been under political and economic turmoil since the military took over in a coup in 2021. Fighting has raged across the country since then between the military and pro-democracy or ethnically associated armed groups.

Residents of Rakhine State reported that at least 100 people had been slain, with many more missing and presumed dead, and that aid had yet to come. Bangladesh experienced its biggest power outage in seven months.

The death toll could not be independently verified by Reuters.

According to assessments from numerous villages he said he visited in the aftermath, more than 100 Rohingya were killed, according to a resident in the area who declined to be identified due to safety concerns.

Two other residents contacted by Reuters also said a large number of people had been killed, as did a diplomatic source briefed on the situation, who did not provide details.

News portal Myanmar Now reported hundreds were feared dead, while aid groups said there were a “significant number of deaths”.

Myanmar’s state media said three people were killed.

A spokesperson for the pro-democracy shadow National Unity Government told Reuters: “We received confirmation of about 400 Rohingya deaths, mainly around Sittwe area”.

The storm was one of the worst since Cyclone Nargis swept across parts of southern Myanmar killing nearly 140,000 people in 2008.

‘NIGHTMARE SCENARIO’

A United Nations official said 5.4 million people were expected to have been in the storm’s path, the majority of whom were considered vulnerable.

“It’s really a nightmare scenario for the cyclone to hit areas with such deep pre-existing needs,” said Ramanathan Balakrishnan at the UN’s Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Shelter, water, sanitation, and relief items were early priorities, he said.

Storm damage to communications and road infrastructure and ongoing restrictions by Myanmar’s military government was making it difficult to get information from and deliver aid to the affected area, non-governmental organisations said.

“It’s difficult to obtain accurate or up to date information, which also makes responding to the crisis adequately even more difficult,” said Manny Maung of Human Rights Watch.

Non-governmental relief organisation Partners said on Twitter: “We are scaling up our response effort to provide critical relief supplies like rice and tarps to Rohingya communities affected by Cyclone Mocha as we are able.”

Myanmar’s state media on Tuesday said junta chief Min Aung Hlaing had visited Sittwe to assess the damage, donate money and give instructions on the response.

Before the storm made landfall on Sunday about 400,000 people were evacuated in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

The UN humanitarian office (OCHA) said about 6 million people in the region were already in need of humanitarian assistance before the storm, among them 1.2 million people internally displaced by ethnic conflict.

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