More than 70,000 acres of sesame fields were ruined by flooding triggered by Cyclone Mocha in Magway Region, with financial losses totaling around 18 billion kyats, according to local sesame growers.  

Ayeyarwady Bank, one of the largest private banks in Myanmar, is providing loans to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) affected by Cyclone Mocha, which made landfall with destructive force near the Arakan State capital Sittwe on May 14.

“Farmers have lost everything and can’t farm without paddy seeds. I don’t know what the farmers will do in the coming rainy season,”

The state military council said that a water purifier is capable of purifying natural water drawn from sources like Sittwe’s Sat Yoe Kya Creek, purifying 15-20 litres an hour and providing enough for 100 people per day.

A man was killed after a water tanker truck heading to Pi Pin Yin camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State’s Mrauk-U Township overturned on Monday evening, according to IDPs.

Cyclone victims are in need of food supplies, drinking water and medicines, and the homeless also urgently need tarpaulin sheets, bamboo, and nipa palm to assemble temporary shelters.

There are 178 villages across 58 village-tracts in Pauktaw Township, with the cyclone affecting over 100 villages within 46 village-tracts, including killing thousands of cattle.

Thousands of schools in Sittwe, Rathedaung, Ponnagyun, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, Pauktaw, Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships have been damaged or destroyed by the cyclonic storm, according to a DMG field survey. 

“Some of the newly renovated ancient buildings and walls were damaged by the storm. Some roofs at the Koe Thaung Pagoda were badly damaged by the storm.”

At least 18,000 homes from 115 villages in Mrauk-U Township, Arakan State, were damaged or destroyed last week by Cyclone Mocha, said an official from the township General Administration Department office.

Storm victims and social organisations say Myanmar’s military regime urgently needs to ratchet up deliveries of the food and medical provisions donated by India to Cyclone Mocha victims in Myanmar.

“The storm came as another blow to us, who are already suffering from armed conflicts. For now, we need houses and rice as well as drinking water and toilets,”

The NUG donated K100 million, Kachin Independence Organization gave K300 million,

Among the victims were 24 Arakanese people, 117 Muslims and four junta soldiers, with the majority of casualties reported in Sittwe, Rathedaung and Ponnagyun townships.

Some 600 internally displaced people (IDPs) are reportedly in need of emergency assistance after over 120 shelters at a displacement camp in Htanpin Kone Lay Village, part of Magway Region’s Htilin Township, were destroyed by Cyclone Mocha.

Boiling water has been difficult for many, meanwhile, because electricity is out or unreliable across a large swath of cyclone-hit Arakan State.

Twenty-one more people have been confirmed dead as a result of Cyclone Mocha in Arakan State’s Sittwe, Rathedaung and Ponnagyun townships.

The Myanmar Rice Federation (MRF) will supply 3,000 tonnes of rice from its rice reserve for townships in Arakan State hit by Cyclone Mocha.

Around 80 Muslims in Muslim villages and some 34 others in displacement camps died during the storm, according to a DMG tally as of Thursday.