Typhoon Yagi’s torrential downpours led to horrific flooding in Myanmar, resulting in a reported 226 fatalities in just over a week, according to the country’s state media. This has further exacerbated the crisis caused by the February 2021 coup, which has left about one-third of the country’s 55 million residents requiring humanitarian help post coup tensions. The typhoon hit Myanmar hard, particularly major locations like Mandalay, the capital city Naypyitaw and various regions of Shan state, a site recently plagued with heavy combat. Seventy-seven individuals remain unaccounted for, says the state media.
Following the floods, 388 aid camps were set up in nine regions and states, and public contributions included much-needed essentials like food, drinking water, and clothing, as per Myanmar’s military’s news outlet, the Global New Light of Myanmar.
The United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported the flooding had heavily damaged 40,000 acres of farming land and approximately 26,700 homes solely in the Mandalay area. Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) expressed concerns about trying to reach flood-stricken regions, with damaged roads, disrupted telecoms and electricity networks causing added obstacles.
Unicef highlighted the impacts on refugee camps, which were already grappling with dwindling resources amid ongoing conflict, and now suffer even more due to the floods. The devastation wrought by Typhoon Yagi extends beyond Myanmar, with its path of destruction leading to the reported loss of 292 lives in Vietnam and causing flood-related havoc in Thailand’s north, even extending to the border with Myanmar. Thailand’s disaster prevention and mitigation department reported that floods and resulting incidents like landslides have claimed 45 lives since the previous month.
Also affected is Laos, where flooding in eight provinces necessitated the evacuation of over 440 families and caused devastation to more than 3166 hectares of rice fields, as per Unicef’s reports. – Reuters
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