2023-05-15 06:57:20
Burma
A city cut off from the world after Cyclone Mocha
Sittwe was particularly affected by the passage of a violent storm which devastated the west of the country and neighboring Bangladesh.
Published
Communications with Sittwe remained interrupted on Monday.
With winds up to 195 km/h, the biggest storm for more than a decade in the Bay of Bengal fell on Sunday between Sittwe, Burma, and Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
Communications with Sittwe, where around 150,000 people live and which suffered the brunt of the storm, remained interrupted on Monday. The road leading to the city was strewn with trees, pylons and electric cables. A column of vehicles carrying teams of rescuers tried to clear access with chainsaws to reach the city, under the gaze of residents worried about their loved ones.
“We crossed the cyclone yesterday, cut trees and pushed back pylons (…) but the big trees blocked the road”, declared an ambulance driver who tried to reach Sittwe. The cyclone slammed into the Burmese shoreline on Sunday, causing a tidal surge of several meters and strong winds that toppled a communication tower in Sittwe.
Media linked to the ruling junta have reported that hundreds of mobile phone masts are no longer operational. “I want to go home as soon as possible because we don’t know the situation in Sittwe,” said a resident of the town who requested anonymity. “There is no telephone line, no internet (…) I am worried about my house and my belongings”.
Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing ‘asked officials to prepare the transport of relief supplies to Sittwe airport’, state media reported on Monday, without giving details on when the relief supplies would arrive. . “The first information that goes back suggests that the damage is significant,” said the United Nations office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs on Sunday evening.
Refugee camps spared
In Bangladesh, where the authorities claimed to have evacuated 750,000 people, Kamrul Hasan, a ministerial official indicated that the cyclone caused no casualties. In the Rohingya camps, where around one million people live in 190,000 bamboo and tarpaulin shelters, the damage is also minimal.
“About 300 shelters were destroyed by the cyclone,” said Deputy Refugee Commissioner Shamsud Douza. The risks of landslides in the camps are also low “due to scanty rainfall”. “The sky has become clear. Cyclone Mocha is the strongest storm to hit Bangladesh since Cyclone Sidr,” said Azizur Rahman, director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department.
(AFP)
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