Cyclone Mocha death toll rises to 60 in Myanmar
The death toll in cyclone-hit Myanmar rose to 60 on Tuesday, according to local leaders and junta-backed media, as villagers tried to piece together ruined homes and waited for aid and support.
Packing winds of up to 195 kilometres (120 miles) per hour, Mocha made landfall on Sunday, downing power pylons and smashing wooden fishing boats to splinters.
In Rakhine state, at least 41 people died in the villages of Bu Ma and nearby Khaung Doke Kar, inhabited by the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority, local leaders told AFP reporters at the scene.
Thirteen people were killed when a monastery collapsed in a village in Rathedaung township north of Rakhine’s capital Sittwe, and a woman died when a building collapsed in a neighbouring village, according to Myanmar state broadcaster MRTV.
“There will be more deaths, as more than a hundred people are missing,” said Karlo, the head of Bu Ma village near Sittwe.
Mocha was the most powerful cyclone to hit the area in over a decade, churning up villages, uprooting trees and knocking out communications across much of Rakhine state.
China said it was “willing to provide emergency disaster relief assistance”, according to a statement on the Facebook page of its embassy in Myanmar. The United Nations refugee office said it was investigating reports that Rohingya living in displacement camps had been killed in the storm.
It was “working to start rapid needs assessments in hard-hit areas” of Rakhine state, it added.
The Rohingya are denied citizenship and healthcare, and require permission to travel outside of their villages in western Rakhine state. Many others live in camps after being displaced by decades of ethnic conflict in the state.