UN: Around 800,000 people affected by Cyclone Mocha in Myanmar, 145 dead

At least 800,000 people in Myanmar need emergency food aid and other assistance after Cyclone Mocha slammed into the conflict-torn country earlier this week, the United Nations said Friday. While, the country’s ruling military junta said that at least 145 people have died due to the powerful cyclone that made landfall in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

AFP reports, “The cyclone left a trail of devastation across Myanmar’s Rakhine State, with houses flattened, roads cut off by uprooted trees, hospitals and schools destroyed, and telecommunications and power lines severely disrupted,” Anthea Webb, the UN World Food Programme’s deputy regional director for Asia and the Pacific, told reporters in Geneva. “There are at least 800,000 people in urgent need of emergency food assistance.”

The cyclone destroyed numerous houses, hospitals, and schools while disrupting telecommunications and power supply in Rakhine State in central Myanmar, along with the Sagaing and Magway regions.

Among the 145 dead, 117 were Rohingyas, 24 were local residents, and four were soldiers. Many people have been reported missing. The camps where the internally displaced Rohingyas lived have also been ravaged, reports said.