At times over 250 kilometers per hour, “Mocha” hits land – it is unclear how many people die. Human rights activists report that many Rohingya refugees are totally helpless at the mercy of the cyclone.
Yangon – Many internally displaced people in Myanmar have lost everything due to the destructive power of the severe cyclone “Mocha”. “The situation is terrible. People don’t even have clean water,” said Shwe Phyu, who helps Rohingya refugees in the hard-hit region around the city of Sittwe, on Thursday. “It’s a disaster,” said the 24-year-old of the German Press Agency. The exact number of fatalities is completely unclear.
“There is about a village here where 2,000 people lived – now there are only a few hundred left.” Most of the others were probably killed by the Category 5 storm. Many are completely desperate and after the destruction of their emergency shelters they have nowhere to seek shelter.
The ruling military junta, which seized power two years ago, is doing nothing to help those affected. Instead, the military hinders the work of the helpers. Since the coup, the generals have violently suppressed all resistance.
A spokesman for the “National Unity Government” (NUG), a kind of democratic shadow government, spoke of at least 400 deaths on Tuesday. However, according to eyewitnesses, the actual number of victims could be significantly higher. The dead are mainly members of the Muslim Rohingya minority, which has been persecuted in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar for decades.
Cyclone “Mocha” hit land on Sunday with wind speeds of sometimes more than 250 kilometers per hour. It was the strongest cyclone to hit the region in more than a decade. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, told dpa that many Rohingya refugees had been completely helpless at his mercy. The cyclone also raged in neighboring Bangladesh, but so far there have been no reports of deaths there.
“We believe the death toll reported to date is likely to increase significantly,” Robertson said. Those who survived were in dire need of food, medicine and shelter. “Now is the time to help the Rohingya people while significantly increasing international pressure to end the abusive restrictions these IDPs have been facing for years,” Robertson said. dpa
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