Global Courant 2023-05-15 09:51:00
NAYPYITAW — One of the worst storms to hit Myanmar in recent years has severely disrupted communications in the impoverished state of Rakhine, a major ethnic armed group and an aid worker said Monday, making it difficult to determine the magnitude of the impact .
Cyclone Mocha stormed into Myanmar’s west coast from the Bay of Bengal on Sunday afternoon, largely sparing more than a million refugees in vulnerable camps in neighboring Bangladesh.
But it flooded Rakhine’s capital Sittwe, destroying at least one communications tower.
Calls from Reuters reporters to 11 phone numbers in the region fell through.
At least another dozen people said they were unable to contact relatives in Sittwe.
About 400,000 people were evacuated in Myanmar and Bangladesh before Cyclone Mocha made landfall, as authorities and aid groups rushed to avoid heavy casualties.
“All communications are still cut and people are in trouble because all the roofs are gone,” said Khine Thu Kha, a spokesman for the Arakan army that controls parts of Rakhine state.
“We use military devices to communicate with them.”
Mr Benjamin Small, an adviser to the United Nations Development Programme, said it is difficult to understand the extent of the destruction because of the broken communications in Rakhine.
“But with reported winds of 250 km/h making Cyclone Mocha one of the most powerful ever to hit Myanmar and the disturbing images online, things aren’t looking good,” Small said on his Twitter account.
In 2008, Cyclone Nargis swept through parts of Myanmar with winds of 240 km/h, killing nearly 140,000 people.
Since a junta headed a democratically elected government two years ago, Myanmar has plunged into chaos, with a resistance movement battling the military on several fronts following a crackdown on protests.
A junta spokesman did not immediately return a call from Reuters for comment.
The military has imposed internet lockdowns in parts of the country, including some areas in Rakhine and the neighboring state of Chin, which was also in the path of Cyclone Mocha.
“There is significant overlap between the shut down areas and the path of the cyclone, which is a major concern as it hinders efforts to reach people,” said digital rights activist Htaike Htaike Aung.
In remote and hilly Chin, where there has previously been fierce fighting between the junta and the resistance, lines of communication have been cut since the coup in the areas the storm swept through, the Chin Human Rights Organization said.
“We have not yet been able to determine the extent of the destruction,” said the group’s deputy director Salai Za Uk Ling.
“The storm itself is a trigger for more problems as heavy rains continue and landslides and flooding tend to follow.” REUTERS
