Image: SAI AUNG MAIN (AFP)
According to the first reports, a mobile phone tower had also fallen over. In Sittwe, the ground floors of several buildings were in the water, as a video from eyewitnesses showed. Around 400,000 people in Myanmar and in the low-lying neighboring country of Bangladesh have been evacuated to safety amid fears of one of the region’s strongest storms in years.
According to the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), around six million people are already dependent on humanitarian aid in northwestern Myanmar and in the state of Rakhine. “For a hurricane to hit an area that already has such great humanitarian needs is a nightmare scenario,” said UN Coordinator Ramanathan Balakrishnan. Hundreds of thousands of people who are already at risk are affected.
According to aid workers, more than a million Rohingya refugees, including half a million children, who live in camps in the coastal town of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, are also at risk. “Vulnerable people are currently being moved to safe shelters and we are also putting together aid packages,” said Farah Kabir of ActionAid Bangladesh.
Most refugees live in makeshift shelters in the densely populated camps. In 2017, members of the Rohingya Muslim minority fled a military operation in Myanmar. “The winds are getting stronger,” said 21-year-old refugee Mohammed Aziz. “Our shelter made of bamboo and tarpaulin offers little protection. We pray to Allah that he saves us.”
Source: Nachrichten
