Arakan State IDPs vulnerable, unprepared for approaching cyclonic storm

By DMG 21 Mar 2022

DMG Newsroom
21 March 2022, Sittwe

Internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State have expressed concerns about the impacts of an impending cyclonic storm on their camps, after the Department of Meteorology (DMH) forecast strong winds and heavy rains as it is expected to make landfall on March 23.

Some IDPs said they had not made any preparations to shelter themselves against the storm, which is predicted to strengthen from a deep depression into a cyclone, to be called Asani, over the next 24 hours.

Camp manager U Naing Tun Win of Wah Taung IDP camp in Kyauktaw Township said huts at the camp are in danger of being destroyed by the storm.

“We will have a lot of trouble if there is a storm and heavy rain. The huts we are living in were built some three years ago. They are made with bamboo and tarpaulin sheets. So, they will surely collapse. They are already crumbling,” he said.

Ko Aung Htay from Yan Aung Myay IDP camp in Buthidaung Township said IDPs face the risk of flooding if significant precipitation accompanies the storm.

“Shelters here will be flooded by torrents in case of heavy rain. We have not yet made any preparations to protect ourselves from the storm. We won’t even have shelters to sleep in if there is a storm with heavy rain. It will be difficult to cook, and we will also need medicines then,” he said.

IDPs at camps in Ponnagyun, Rathedaung, Minbya and Mrauk-U townships lack cyclone shelters, and have requested emergency relief aid.

“The government has not done anything for us. But we have asked monasteries to allow us to stay for a while,” said U San Htwe from Ohn Yay Paw IDP camp in Sittwe.

Arakan State military council spokesman U Hla Thein wrote on his Facebook that the council has formed a temporary command post to carry out administrative works during and after the storm.

DMG was unable to report on any other measures the military government has taken to protect IDPs ahead of the storm’s landfall, as calls to U Hla Thein and the director of Arakan State’s Disaster Management Department, U Thurein Tun, went unanswered.

More than 60,000 IDPs remain at camps in Arakan State after they were displaced by fighting between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army from 2018-20, according to the Rakhine Ethnics Congress.

Fishing trawlers are not going out to sea due to foreboding storm reports, said local U Kyaw Naing of Thae Khone village in Pauktaw Township.

The depression, currently gaining strength in the Andaman Sea, is expected to move northward along the Nicobar Islands chain and become a cyclone over the next 24 hours, the DMH said in a statement on Monday.

The DMH also warned domestic and international fishing vessels and other seacraft off Myanmar’s shores, as well as airlines, to take precautionary measures against the storm.