Many people, including Rohingya Muslims, were feared dead in Myanmar in the wake of Cyclone Mocha that struck at the weekend, aid groups said on Tuesday. Rescue and relief efforts are underway in northwestern Myanmar and neighbouring Bangladesh after Mocha crashed ashore.
The cyclone made landfall on Sunday between Sittwe in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, where some one million mostly Muslim Rohingya fled after a brutal 2017 crackdown.
Cyclone Mocha was one of the worst since Cyclone Nargis swept across parts of southern Myanmar killing nearly 140,000 people in 2008.
Aung Kyaw Moe, a Rohingya activist and adviser to the National Unity Government’s Ministry of Human Rights, said on Twitter that the number of deaths in Sittwe alone was 400.
“It’s difficult to obtain accurate or up-to-date information, which also makes responding to the crisis adequately even more difficult,” said Manny Maung of Human Rights Watch, adding that many were missing and feared dead.
