Hundreds dead after Cyclone Mocha in Myanmar – ‘nightmare scenario’ in Bangaldesh Hundreds dead after Cyclone Mocha in Myanmar – ‘nightmare scenario’ in Bangaldesh

According to estimates by UN aid workers, the destructive Cyclone Mocha swept through areas of Myanmar with a population of 4.5 million. At least 400 people have been killed in the tropical cyclone in Rakhine state on the west coast, a spokesman for the “Government of National Unity” (NUG) told dpa on Tuesday.

The dead are mainly members of the Rohingya Muslim minority, who have been persecuted for decades in the former Burma. Ramanathan Balakrishnan, the UN relief coordinator in Myanmar, said on Tuesday they are at particular risk because they lacked shelter, food and income before the tropical cyclone arrived. “It’s really a nightmare scenario,” he said in a video link from Yangon.

The “government of national unity” is a kind of democratic shadow government formed after the 2021 military coup as an alternative to the ruling junta. She had tried to warn people about the cyclone in advance and organize international aid for the victims.

The news site “The Irrawaddy” also reported at least 400 deaths in Rohingya camps around the town of Sittwe. Many drowned or were killed by falling trees. Since the coup, many more displaced people are living in makeshift shelters in the region because of the junta’s continued violence. Countless people had barely been able to protect themselves against the fierce gusts of wind and heavy rain.

According to Balakrishnan, “Mocha” has hit the poorest parts of the country, which had previously been affected by the corona pandemic, internal conflicts and economic problems. “Now they are also on the frontline of the climate crisis,” he said, referring to the increasingly common extreme weather events being observed as part of global warming.

The tropical cyclone made landfall in Myanmar and neighboring Bangladesh on Sunday, with winds sometimes exceeding 250 kilometers per hour. The full extent of the damage is only slowly becoming apparent

The aid organization Oxfam had previously stated that the storm had “enormous consequences” for the lives of the internally displaced. “We call on the international community to provide the necessary resources to enable them to live with dignity.”

In Myanmar and Bangladesh, hundreds of thousands were evacuated from the storm as a precaution. In Bangladesh, this has apparently saved many lives: according to the authorities, no deaths have been reported so far. Still, the damage around the town of Cox’s Bazar is considerable.

It was the strongest cyclone to hit the region in more than a decade. The powerful tropical storm evoked memories of the destructive Cyclone Nargis 15 years ago: in May 2008, an estimated 140,000 people died in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta.

(yam/oee/sda/dpa)