Rohingya in Myanmar count the dead after Cyclone Mocha
Published: 03:05 PM,May 16,2023 | EDITED : 07:05 PM,May 16,2023
A girl looks outside a window from her destroyed house after Cyclone Mocha hit in Sittwe. — AFP
SITTWE: Rohingya families in cyclone-hit Myanmar buried loved ones outside shattered villages and searched the seashore for the missing, expecting little help from a government that denies their identity.
Cyclone Mocha snapped bridges, downed power lines and ruptured close-lying huts in displacement camps and villages across Rakhine state, leaving tens of thousands even more on the edge.
On Tuesday, many were trying to pick through piles of debris that had once roofed their homes or clear fallen trees from village paths.
Others were looking for family members not seen since the cyclone made landfall. It was the most powerful storm to hit the region in over a decade.
Dozens were reported dead and more than one hundred were missing.
'We were trying to run but the water was very high and dragged us down,' Sar Hla Ma Kha, 40, said from Basara village.
Many walked the shore searching for family members swept away by the raging waters.
Some found the bodies of their loved ones.
Aa Bul Hu Son, 66, on Tuesday buried his daughter, the latest member of his family to have been taken by the storm.
'I just found her dead body in the lake in the village and buried her right away. I can't find any words to express my loss,' he said.
'Nine out of my 14 family members were killed,' he said next to the hastily dug grave within sight of the shore.
As the small group said Islamic prayers over Aa Bul Hu Son's daughter and lowered her body into the soil, a plane took off from Rakhine state capital Sittwe's airport a few kilometres behind the group.
Contact was slowly being re-established with Sittwe, a city of around 150,000 people, with roads being cleared and Internet connections re-established.
Images broadcast by state media showed troops unloading aid at the airport, and state media reported junta chief Min Aung Hlaing had visited to view the damage.
But few Rohingya in the devastated villages along the Rakhine coast were optimistic about receiving help fast. — AFP
Cyclone Mocha snapped bridges, downed power lines and ruptured close-lying huts in displacement camps and villages across Rakhine state, leaving tens of thousands even more on the edge.
On Tuesday, many were trying to pick through piles of debris that had once roofed their homes or clear fallen trees from village paths.
Others were looking for family members not seen since the cyclone made landfall. It was the most powerful storm to hit the region in over a decade.
Dozens were reported dead and more than one hundred were missing.
'We were trying to run but the water was very high and dragged us down,' Sar Hla Ma Kha, 40, said from Basara village.
Many walked the shore searching for family members swept away by the raging waters.
Some found the bodies of their loved ones.
Aa Bul Hu Son, 66, on Tuesday buried his daughter, the latest member of his family to have been taken by the storm.
'I just found her dead body in the lake in the village and buried her right away. I can't find any words to express my loss,' he said.
'Nine out of my 14 family members were killed,' he said next to the hastily dug grave within sight of the shore.
As the small group said Islamic prayers over Aa Bul Hu Son's daughter and lowered her body into the soil, a plane took off from Rakhine state capital Sittwe's airport a few kilometres behind the group.
Contact was slowly being re-established with Sittwe, a city of around 150,000 people, with roads being cleared and Internet connections re-established.
Images broadcast by state media showed troops unloading aid at the airport, and state media reported junta chief Min Aung Hlaing had visited to view the damage.
But few Rohingya in the devastated villages along the Rakhine coast were optimistic about receiving help fast. — AFP