Hundreds feared dead in Myanmar as Cyclone Mocha hits

The death toll is feared to rise as more information is gathered from other cyclone-ravaged areas in Rakhine, said Ullah, who is the director at the Committee of Islamic & Cultural Heritage of Arakan (Rakhine) Rohingya Union.

The super cyclone, categorized as the top hurricane by the US, hit Bangladesh’s southeastern maritime port of Cox’s Bazar and Myanmar’s Rakhine state on Sunday.

Rescue and relief efforts are under way in cyclone-hit areas, with one humanitarian group working in the affected area saying hundreds had been killed and some Rohingya camps destroyed.

On Monday night, Myanmar’s military regime declared conflict-hit Rakhine, which it does not fully control, a ‘disaster area’, after winds as strong as 250 kilometres per hour brought down trees and telecommunication towers and ripped roofs from buildings.

Torrential rain and a storm surge of between 3 and 3.5 metres also caused widespread flooding in the low-lying area, with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) saying there had been widespread destruction in and around Sittwe.

‘Early reports suggest that damage is extensive and needs among already vulnerable communities, particularly displaced people, will be high,’ it said in an update on Monday, noting that communications with the area were difficult.

Partners Relief and Development, which works in Rakhine, said Rohingya contacts living near Sittwe told them their camps had been almost destroyed and that other early reports were ‘counting the death toll in the hundreds’.

Aung Kyaw Moe, a Rohingya activist and adviser to the National Unity Government’s Ministry of Human Rights, said on Twitter that the number of deaths in Sittwe alone was 400. He shared video of flattened buildings but did not elaborate.