Most storm victims in Arakan State yet to receive emergency aid, relief team says

By Admin 15 Jun 2023

DMG Newsroom
15 June 2023, Sittwe

About 30 percent of the victims of Cyclone Mocha in Arakan State have received relief items from international organisations, civil society organisations and donors, but around 70 percent are still in need of emergency assistance, the Arakan Army said on Wednesday via the Cyclone Mocha Emergency Rescue and Rehabilitation for Arakan (Cyclone Mocha ERRA). 

Led by the deputy chief of the Arakan Army, Dr. Nyo Twan Awng, Cyclone Mocha ERRA is a team that provides food, healthcare, shelter and general assistance to people affected by the storm, which made landfall near Sittwe with destructive force on May 14.

Cyclone Mocha destroyed 288,530 homes in Sittwe, Ponnagyun, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, Minbya, Myebon, Rathedaung, Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships and affected 1,547,761 people in Arakan State, according to figures released by Cyclone Mocha ERRA.

As of June 12, a total of 21,164 households received food supplies and 51,942 households were provided with shelters, while 199,609 households needed food items and 169,206 households were in need of shelter assistance.

The AA has accepted more than K2 billion donated by Myanmar’s parallel administration, the National Unity Government, as well as the United Wa State Army, Kachin Independence Army, Arakanese people abroad and other humanitarian groups, to go toward storm victims in Arakan State.

Cyclone Mocha ERRCA is managing donations and continues to donate food, including rice, to people in the storm-affected areas, but there is still a need for emergency assistance.

“All homes in the village were destroyed by the cyclonic storm,” said Ko Maung Hla Thein, a local man from Thaungdayar Village in Rathedaung Township. “The junta provided 35 bags of rice to storm victims in the village and the AA helped us repair our damaged homes. There are many people who are unable to repair their damaged homes due to lack of donors.”

According to the AA, 164 people — 103 from Sittwe Township, 41 from Rathedaung Township, nine from Pauktaw Township, five from Buthidaung Township, four from Ponnagyun Township and two from Kyauktaw Township — were killed by Cyclone Mocha. Their causes of death ranged from drowning amid rising tides to building collapses.

Storm victims are facing difficulties rebuilding their homes and are in urgent need of shelter, food, drinking water and medicines.

The junta’s Arakan State Administration Council has provided differing figures on the cyclone’s toll, saying a total of 1,156,796 people were affected in Arakan State, with financial losses totaling nearly K4.7 billion and 148 deaths recorded.