To safer ground: Buddhist nuns wading through floodwaters by a temple in Taungoo, Bago region following heavy rains in the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi. — AFP
The nation’s junta chief made a rare request for foreign aid to cope with deadly floods that have displaced hundreds of thousands of people who have already endured three years of war.
Floods and landslides have killed almost 300 people in Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand in the wake of Typhoon Yagi, which dumped a colossal deluge of rain when it hit the region last weekend.
In Myanmar, more than 235,000 people have been forced from their homes by floods, the junta said on Friday, piling further misery on the country where war has raged since the military seized power in 2021.
In Taungoo – around an hour south of the capital Naypyidaw – residents paddled makeshift rafts on floodwaters lapping around a Buddhist pagoda.
Rescuers drove a speedboat through the waters, lifting sagging electricity lines and broken tree branches with a long pole.
“I lost my rice, chickens and ducks,” said farmer Naung Tun, who had brought his three cows to higher ground near Taungoo after floodwaters innundated his village. “I don’t care about the other belongings. Nothing else is more important than the lives of people and animals.”
The rains in the wake of typhoon Yagi sent people across South-East Asia fleeing by any means necessary, including by elephant in Myanmar and jetski in Thailand.
“Officials from the government need to contact foreign countries to receive rescue and relief aid to be provided to the victims,” junta chief Min Aung Hlaing said on Friday, according to Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
“It is necessary to manage rescue, relief and rehabilitation measures as quickly as possible,” he was quoted as saying.
Myanmar’s military has previously blocked or frustrated humanitarian assistance from abroad.
Last year, it suspended travel authorisations for aid groups trying to reach around a million victims of powerful Cyclone Mocha that hit the west of the country.
At the time, the United Nations slammed that decision as “unfathomable.”The junta gave a death toll on Friday of 33, while earlier in the day, the country’s fire department said rescuers had recovered 36 bodies.
A military spokesman said it had lost contact with some areas of the country and was investigating reports that dozens had been buried in landslides in a gold- mining area in central Mandalay region. — AFP
