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Cyclone hits Myanmar churches, shelter camps hard

Shadow National Unity government now puts death toll at 455, while junta says figure is only 21
A girl walks past destroyed houses at Basara refugee camp in Sittwe on May 16, 2023, after Cyclone Mocha made landfall

A girl walks past destroyed houses at Basara refugee camp in Sittwe on May 16, 2023, after Cyclone Mocha made landfall. (Photo: AFP)

Published: May 18, 2023 08:02 AM GMT
Updated: May 18, 2023 08:07 AM GMT

Churches and shelter camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been destroyed in large numbers in a predominantly Christian region in civil war-affected Myanmar after deadly cyclone Mocha struck on May 14, aid and civil groups say.

Father Nereus Tun Min, director of Catholic Karuna Pyay that covers worst-hit Rakhine state and Paletwa township in northwestern Chin state, said the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in the port city of Sittwe in Rakhine state was badly damaged, along with churches in other townships.

The priest added that the Catholic Church has mobilized a team of workers from Karuna (Caritas) who will reach Sittwe this week.

“As communications remain difficult, it the exact details of the destruction of buildings, including churches are yet to be known,” noted Father Min.

Nearly 29 religious buildings, including churches, were damaged along with hundreds of residences, and stores in six townships in Chin state, according to the Interim Chin National Consultative Council which looks after administration in the predominantly Christian region.

“We appeal to people inside and abroad to help in the recovery of the damaged buildings in Chin state,” it said in a statement on May 17.

The council said it was trying to collect more information amid disruption to internet and mobile phone networks.

Packing winds of up to 248 kilometers per hour and copious amounts of rainfall, Cyclone Mocha hit many areas along Myanmar's coast. Northwestern Chin state and the Bamar-heartland of the Sagaing and Magwe regions are strongholds of rebels fighting against the military since the coup ousted the elected government in February 2021.

Myanmar’s shadow National Unity government put the death toll across the country at 455 while the ruling junta said the figure stood at 21 as of May 17.

In Chin state, an estimated 710 houses were destroyed: 153 in Hakha township, 74 houses in Falam, 93 in Thanglang, and 305 in Matupi, according to the latest report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

In northernmost Kachin state, at least 42 Church-run shelter homes of the Internally Displaced Persons in Tanai township were affected, according to the UNOCHA.

The military government declared four townships of Chin state — Tedim, Paletwa, Matupi and Hakha as a natural disaster-affected area on May 16 along with 17 townships in Rakhine, the state on the western coast  and the hardest-hit.

Nearly 1,000 people were affected by floods in the central Magway region, the second largest of Myanmar's seven divisions, while the houses of 15,000 people were damaged in the rebel fiefdom in the Sagaing region.

In refugee camps in Rakhine's capital, Sittwe, where thousands of Rohingya Muslims have been living in camps with restrictions on their freedom of movement, at least 400 people were feared dead, according to media reports, citing local residents and activists, while the ruling junta denied any deaths in the camps. 

Normal life is completely thrown out of gear in Sittwe, which houses a deepwater port on the Bay of Bengal. However, the UN and other international aid agencies are awaiting the green light from the junta to undertake rehabilitation work.

No humanitarian aid “has reached the affected Rohingya people. The International community needs to act urgently, otherwise “many more will die,” Tun Khin, president of the UK-based Burmese Rohingya Organisation said in a May 17 statement.

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