AA offers its own accounting of Cyclone Mocha’s destructive toll

By Admin 01 Jun 2023

DMG Newsroom
1 June 2023, Sittwe

A total of 216,681 houses were damaged or destroyed by Cyclone Mocha in rural parts of Sittwe, Ponnagyun, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, Minbya, Myebon, Rathedaung, Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships in Arakan State, and more than 1.2 million people were affected, according to the Arakan Army (AA).

“According to our updated [data], 146 people were killed by the cyclone. Ten people were injured, and three are missing,” AA spokesman U Khaing Thukha told DMG.

The actual number of casualties may be higher, said the AA spokesman. Among the fatalities, Sittwe Township was hardest hit, with 96 people killed. They died in collapses of houses and other buildings, or when they were caught by the storm surge that accompanied Cyclone Mocha and drowned, according to the AA.

“That day we were sheltering at a school. My son-in-law stayed at home to take care of it. The tide reached around 10 feet high at our camp. When we returned home after the storm, we found him dead in the collapsed house,” said Ko Hla Maung Ni from Bawdupha Muslim displacement camp No. 2 in Sittwe Township.

Those injured in the storm need financial assistance to receive treatment and other emergency relief supplies, the injured told DMG.

Daw Thein Wai Nu, who suffered a head injury while taking shelter at a religious hall in Rathedaung Township, said: “We were sitting inside the religious hall. The roof collapsed and bricks fell on us. I was injured in my head, and I still suffer from back pain.”

A total of 971 schools, 252 healthcare facilities and 1,507 religious buildings were damaged or destroyed by the storm, which also killed 15,338 cattle, according to the AA.

“Over 100 oxen died in our village. Many cattle also died in other villages. It is a huge loss for farmers. If we had cows now, we could sell them to buy building materials to fix our houses,” said U Maung Thar Cho of Ywar Thit Kay Village, who lost three cows in the storm.

The AA said it has received 1 billion kyats donated by fellow armed revolutionary organisations for relief operations in Arakan State. The AA has been supplying food to people in cyclone-hit areas, but residents say much more assistance is needed.

Myanmar’s military regime has also offered figures on the destructive toll wrought by the storm. According to the regime’s Arakan State Administration Council, over 1.1 million people were affected by the cyclone, with financial losses totalling K4.6 billion. A total of 148 people were killed, the regime said last month.