The UN said on Tuesday it needs $375m in funding to get food, medicine and other relief supplies to millions of people affected by a cyclone that has devastated parts of Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Western Myanmar and provinces in neighbouring Bangladesh, where there is a large population of Rohingya Muslims and refugees, bore the brunt of Cyclone Mocha on May 14, which is estimated to have killed hundreds and caused widespread damage.
For Myanmar, the UN said it is appealing for $122m in additional funding and for $211m of existing funds to be channelled towards cyclone response, while a separate $42m is needed for Bangladesh.
“We are now in a race against time to provide people with safe shelter in all affected communities and prevent the spread of waterborne disease,” said the UN resident co-ordinator for Myanmar, Ramanathan Balakrishnan, adding that donors need to “dig deep” to support relief efforts.
The appeal comes as humanitarian organisations struggle to access the worst-hit areas due to storm damage and as they await permission from Myanmar’s military government.
A senior aid worker who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters supplies are sitting in warehouses in the commercial capital Yangon as they await clearance more than a week after the disaster.
“If we had full, unimpeded access, we would have been able to empty our warehouses ... send [supplies} to Sittwe and deliver assistance on a much greater scale,” the aid worker said, adding that aid agencies are not speaking out publicly for fear of retribution from the military.
A spokesperson for the junta could not be reached for comment. The military leadership has said 145 people have died in the storm and that aid is being delivered to affected areas.
One survivor in western Myanmar said by phone that blankets and mosquito nets have been trickling into his village of roughly 400 households, many of which were destroyed, since May 19.
“Before that, those who could afford it, bought food and those who couldn’t just starved. We don’t have medicine or clinics and are very much in need of that. We also need more food supplies,” said the survivor, who declined to be identified for safety reasons.
The funds would assist 1.6-million people affected across five areas of Myanmar — Chin, Sagaing, Magway, Kachin, and Rakhine, which has a large Rohingya Muslims community, a persecuted minority that successive Myanmar governments have refused to recognise.
In Bangladesh, a “sophisticated disaster management system” saved many lives but infrastructure and homes were heavily damaged, said Gwyn Lewis, the UN resident co-ordinator in Dhaka.
Reuters
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