In Myanmar, the United Nations called on Tuesday $333 million to support the most vulnerable 1.6 million peoplemany of them lost their homes when the storm hit the western part of the country more than a week ago.
Ramanathan Balakrishnan, the top UN aid official in the country, told reporters in Geneva that the disaster left hundreds of thousands of people homeless as the monsoons hit.
Among the priorities are providing people with safe haven and preventing the outbreak and spread of water-borne diseases.
1.6 million Myanmar people need aid
With recorded coastal winds of up to 250 km/h making landfall off the Bay of Bengal on May 14, Mocha brought floods and landslides to an area where hundreds of thousands of people had to be evacuated due to the earthquake. There is a long-running conflict in Myanmar, many of them civilians. The Rohingya minority of Rakhine State.
The UN appeal asks for a “pump” emergency capital to assist those in the hardest hit areas across Rakhine, Chin, Magway, Sagaing and Kachin states.
Speaking via Zoom from Yangon, Mr. Balakrishnan, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar, said the 1.6 million people identified in need of assistance under the new funding call include “those people who are in need of assistance.” homeless, people without access to health services. services and clean water, people who are food insecure or malnourished, people displaced in camps, stateless people, women, children and people with disabilities”.
Rebuilding before the monsoon
Mr. Balakrishnan warned that “those affected are facing a long rainy season, miserable if we can’t mobilize resources on time”.
He also provided reporters with a glimpse of the harsh conditions facing internally displaced persons, or IDPs, in the capital of Myanmar’s Rakhine state, Sittwe.
He recounted that an IDP from a camp in Sittwe told his colleagues that his shelter had been destroyed while his family sheltered at an evacuation site at the peak. of the storm.
“Those who stayed were faced with a horrible experience when the camp was submerged in the country due to high tides,” the United Nations aid official said, before stressing the need for medical care, clean water and food, as well as assistance in rebuilding shelters.
A shelter left to pieces by Cyclone Mocha in the Nget Chaung 2 IDP camp in Rakhine State, Myanmar.
A humanitarian response is underway
Mr Balakrishnan said hundreds of humanitarian workers were present in Rakhine state, providing aid with food, shelter, water and hygiene items “wherever they could reach”, while Mobile medical teams are assisting people on the spot, Mr. Balakrishnan said. distribute additional emergency aid.
“Thousands of people have received support and we hope to get the green light for a two-week distribution plan soon… across all affected communities in Rakhine and Chin,” he stated.
Rohingya refugees attacked in Bangladesh
In neighboring Bangladesh, the United Nations is calling for $42 million to help respond to the cyclone, including $36 million for Rohingya refugees living in camps in affected areas.
Gwyn Lewis, UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh speaking from Dhaka, told reporters that more than 400,000 people in the country affected and 40,000 Rohingya refugees living in camps have seen their homes – mostly makeshift bamboo structures – destroyed or damaged.
Cut down on portions more
Ms. Lewis emphasized that the tornado came after cutting food rations for refugees and the devastating fire in March that left 16,000 people homeless.
Adding to the difficulty of refugees, she said the lack of funding is forcing the UN to cut down on servings for the second time as of June 1. “This means that the Rohingya refugees will only receive 67% of the food rations they need, so a million people will only get about two-thirds of the food they need, ” she added.
Early warning saves lives
Fortunately, the Bangladesh government acted quickly against the cyclone warnings and evacuated around 700,000 people from Mocha’s path, which has saved countless lives, Ms Lewis said.
She expressed hope that the new funding would allow to rebuild the homes of Rohingya refugees living in camps in Bangladesh with more weather-resistant materials and improved resilience.
On Monday, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) emphasize the the power of early warning services in preventing the worst effects of extreme weather. The agency said in the past, weather disasters similar to Mocha have caused “death tolls in the tens or even hundreds of thousands” in both Myanmar and Bangladesh.
WMO also reports that over the past 50 years, Asia has seen the highest number of deaths due to extreme weather, climate and water-related events, with almost a million deaths – more than half in Bangladesh. .
