Some storm victims excluded from relief aid recipient list: Sittwe residents 

By Admin 04 Jun 2023

DMG Newsroom
4 June 2023, Sittwe

Some victims of Cyclone Mocha in the Arakan State capital Sittwe are reportedly not receiving relief items because they did not provide their household registration cards to the respective ward administrators as part of preparations for the junta’s planned election.

Officials led by an administrator of Sittwe’s Mingan Ward compiled a list of household registration cards in October 2022, but some people who were not counted at that time and did not give their household registration cards to the ward administrator have not received relief supplies, according to locals.

“I didn’t give a copy of the household registration card to the ward administrator because I was not at home at that time. When I went to the ward administrator’s home to get relief items being distributed to the storm victims, a female clerk told me that I would not be given relief items because I didn’t give a copy of my household registration card to the ward administrator,” Daw Than Than Nwe, a resident of Mingan Ward, told DMG.

There are 4,800 households in Mingan Ward, and most of the households reportedly are not receiving relief items from the government, according to locals.

“We received relief items from the World Food Programme, but nothing from the military regime. The storm victims whose household registration cards were collected by the ward administrator for the election are reportedly being provided with relief items. I don’t know which criteria are used to provide the storm victims with relief items,” said a local woman from Mingan Ward’s Block 11 who did not wish to be named.

Daw Phyu Phyu Aye, a resident of Mingan Ward’s Block 10, said that those who supplied copies of their household registration cards to the ward administrator for the election received relief supplies.

“We need to show our household registration cards to ward officials to get relief items. Many people who didn’t give their household registration cards to the ward administrator were not given relief items. We received rice and cooking oil,” she added.

Some 100-household heads in Mingan Ward said the provision of relief items to storm victims using a list of household registration cards is being done under the direction of the ward administrator.

“Those who were not at home when we collected the list of household registration cards for the election will not receive relief items. It is not possible to provide all households in Mingan Ward with relief supplies,” said U Soe Win, the administrator of Mingan Ward.

A social activist from Sittwe said the system for providing relief materials to storm-affected people in Sittwe was fundamentally flawed. 

“Some people do not have household registration cards. Every storm victim should receive relief items,” she told DMG.

Many buildings including thousands of homes in Sittwe, Rathedaung, Ponnagyun, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships were damaged or destroyed by Cyclone Mocha, which made land with destructive force on May 14. Significant need for humanitarian assistance remains among many of the storm’s victims.