Loikaw (Myanmar) (AFP) – War-weary Myanmar villagers salvaged crops from flooded fields Tuesday as the country's death toll in the wake of Typhoon Yagi doubled to 226 and the UN warned as many as 630,000 people could need assistance.
Issued on: 17/09/2024 -
Yagi swept across northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar more than a week ago with powerful winds and an enormous amount of rain, triggering floods and landslides that have killed more than 500 people, according to official figures.
State TV in junta-ruled Myanmar confirmed 226 fatalities late on Monday, with 77 people missing, doubling the previous toll of 113.
The crisis has only deepened people's miseries in Myanmar, where millions have suffered through more than three years of war since the military seized power in 2021.
In Loikaw district in eastern Kayah state -- which has seen fierce fighting between junta forces and armed groups opposed to its rule -- villagers rued their latest trial.
"We have already faced wars and fled from villages many times," local Chit Thein told AFP.
"We have many troubles and now it's floods again -- so much suffering in our lives."
In nearby fields, farmers laboured to save a rice crop completely submerged in paddies by the floodwaters.
More than 150,000 homes have been flooded and nearly 260,000 hectares (640,000 acres) of rice paddies and other crops destroyed, according to Myanmar state media.
The junta has begun relief efforts, opening more than 400 camps according to state media, and appealed for international aid.
But in Loikaw district, Chit Thein said the people of Phayarphyu village were still waiting for help.
"There are many things we have lost. We lost houses, clothes in the wars, and now floods have hit our house so we have nothing left," he said.
"We are sheltering at a monastery. But there is not much food for us and no donations, and no-one has come to help us."
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said an estimated 631,000 people had been affected by flooding across Myanmar.
Food, drinking water, shelter and clothes are all urgently needed, UNOCHA said, warning blocked roads and damaged bridges were all severely hampering relief efforts.
The UN's World Food Programme on Monday said the floods were the worst in Myanmar's recent history, without giving precise details.
Severe flooding hit the country in 2011 and 2015, with more than 100 deaths reported on both occasions, while in 2008 Cyclone Nargis left more than 138,000 people dead or missing.
The junta issued a rare appeal for foreign aid at the weekend, with neighbour India so far the only country to respond, sending 10 tonnes of materials, including dry rations, clothing and medicine.
UNOCHA said more resources are urgently needed.
In recent years Myanmar's military has blocked or frustrated humanitarian assistance from abroad, including after powerful Cyclone Mocha last year when it suspended travel authorisations for aid groups trying to reach around a million people.
Even before the latest floods, people in Myanmar were grappling with the effects of three years of war between the junta and armed groups opposed to its rule, with millions forced from their homes by the conflict.
Thailand compensation
Across southeast Asia, hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee over the past week as Yagi rains swelled rivers and creeks beyond bursting point.
Many had to wade through murky brown waters up their chins, while others used whatever means they could -- including elephants in Myanmar and jetskis in Thailand.
Thailand's northern provinces were hit hard, with one district reporting its worst inundations in 80 years.
The death toll in the kingdom rose to 15 on Tuesday, according to new figures from the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra's government said it would make $90 million available for flood relief, announcing financial aid of up to $6,000 per household for those affected by the floods.
In Vietnam, the death toll stands at 292, with 38 missing, more than 230,000 homes damaged and 280,000 hectares of crops destroyed, according to authorities.
Yagi, the strongest typhoon to hit the north of the country in decades, tore across the densely populated Red River delta -- a vital agricultural region that is also home to major manufacturing hubs -- damaging factories and infrastructure, and inundating farmland.
The typhoon caused an estimated 40 trillion dong ($1.6 billion) in economic losses, state media reported, citing an initial government assessment.
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© 2024 AFP
The border areas between Poland and Czech Republic were hit the hardest over the weekend due to flooding. Poland's government announced that it has set aside 1 billion zlotys ($260 million) to help victims.
A drone view shows a flooded area in Glucholazy, Poland.
Reuters
UPDATED: Sep 17, 2024
In ShortBorder areas between Poland, Czech Republic hit hardest over the weekend
Poland government sets aside 1 billion zlotys ($260 million) to help victims
Affected countries to seek EU aid
Residents of several areas of Poland and the Czech Republic rushed to evacuate on Monday as others in central Europe began cleaning up after the worst flooding in over two decades left a trail of destruction and a rising number of deaths.
Border areas between the Czech Republic and Poland were hit hard over the weekend as heavy rain that has fallen since last week and surging water levels collapsed some bridges, forced evacuations and damaged cars and houses.
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At least 17 people have died in flooding from Romania to Poland in the past few days. On Monday afternoon, the mayor of Nysa, a town of more than 40,000 people in southern Poland, called on residents to evacuate immediately after a nearby floodbank was damaged.
In the northeastern Czech city of Ostrava, a broken barrier on the Odra river at its confluence with the Opava river caused flooding of the city's industrial area, including the BorsodChem chemical plant, coking plant OKK Koksovny and others. Hundreds of people were being evacuated from more residential areas as well.
In the Czech town of Litovel, 70% of which was submerged by water up to a metre deep (3.2 feet) on Monday, residents described their fear as waters rose quickly over the weekend.
"I was just very, very afraid... I ran away because the water was rising very quickly near the house," said Renata Gaborova, 39.
Poland's government announced a state of natural disaster in affected areas and said that it had set aside 1 billion zlotys ($260 million) to help victims.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he was in touch with the leaders of other affected countries and that they would ask the European Union for financial aid.
Szymon Krzysztan, 16, standing in the town square of Ladek Zdroj, described losses from the floods as "unimaginable".
"It's a city like in an apocalypse... It's a ghost town," he said.
Reuters footage showed the town strewn with debris and mud.
"Armageddon... It literally ripped out everything because we don't have a single bridge. In Ladek, all the bridges have disappeared. We are practically cut off from the world," Jerzy Adamczyk, 70, told Reuters.
In Jesenik, a Czech town across the border that was inundated on Sunday, a clean-up was started after waters receded to show damaged cars and debris on the streets.
"There were two metres of water that ran through the street... There are many, many destroyed cars," said resident Zdenek Kuzilek. "Telephones are not working, there is no water, no electricity."
In eastern Romania, where villages and towns were submerged over the weekend, Emil Dragomir, mayor of Slobozia Conachi, told Romanian television some people had been left with just the clothes they had on.
While water was receding in some areas, others, including Wroclaw, a Polish city of some 600,000 people, were shoring up defences for floodwaters heading their way.
In Romania, flooding has killed seven people over the last few days. An Austrian firefighter died on Sunday. In the state of Lower Austria that surrounds Vienna, two men aged 70 and 80 were found drowned in their homes, a police spokesperson said on Monday.
Polish police said four people died as a result of floods in Poland, and in the Czech Republic three have died, a police official said.
Slovakia's capital Bratislava and the Hungarian capital Budapest were both preparing for possible flooding as the River Danube rose.
Hungarian Interior Minister Sandor Pinter said efforts were focused on keeping the river and its tributaries within its banks and said up to 12,000 soldiers were on standby to help.
In Austria, the levels of rivers and reservoirs fell overnight as rain eased, but officials said they were bracing for a second wave as heavier rain was expected.
Published By:
Nakul Ahuja
Nigeria: Severe Flooding in Northeast Nigeria Impacts One Million, Sparks Disease, Food Shortage Fears
WFPBy Melissa Chemam With RFI
Severe flooding continues to wreak havoc in northeastern Nigeria, impacting over one million people and raising concerns about the spread of diseases and widespread food shortages. Authorities are currently working to coordinate relief efforts for those affected by the disaster.
The crisis was caused by torrential rains, which caused a dam to overflow, flooding vast regions and affecting hundreds of thousands of people. Among the impacted areas was a state-owned zoo, releasing crocodiles and snakes into nearby communities overwhelmed by the rising waters.
The dam was damaged in Alau, near Maiduguri, on the Ngadda River, 20 kilometres south of Maiduguri, on 9 September.
Over the weekend, an additional 50,000 people were displaced in northeastern Nigeria as the floods intensified, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said on Monday.
Local authorities are mobilising aid for the disaster victims, but the scale of need is overwhelming, and healthcare workers are concerned about the potential for an outbreak of disease.
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Accept Manage my choices Displacement and disease
The United Nations coordinator in the country, Mohamed Malick Fall visited the region over the weekend, and reported that "a good half of the city [Maiduguri] is impacted."
"At least 400,000 people in the city are affected, with enormous health needs," Malick Fall told RFI. "The need for latrines, access to drinking water and food as well. My big fear now is to see an epidemic of cholera or another water-borne disease."
The flood has killed at least 30 people according to Nigeria's emergency agency and affected a million others, with thousands of people forced into camps for displaced people.
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Accept Manage my choices The authorities first set up eight camps to accommodate people displaced by the disaster.
The figure rose to "30 camps around the city" of Maiduguri, Trond Jensen, head of OCHA, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in Nigeria, told RFI on Monday.
But according to the NGO Save The Children, some other families "are still trapped in their homes" and the city's two main hospitals are flooded.
They are exposed to waterborne diseases, and diarrhoea, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres; malaria is around with a lot of mosquitoes.
The floods are described as the worst in 30 years, by the local authorities.
In one of the camps, Bintu Amadu was among hundreds of frustrated people waiting for hours to see a doctor because her son had diarrhoea.
"We have not received any aid, and our attempts to see a doctor have been unsuccessful. We have been waiting for medical attention since yesterday, but to no avail," she said.
Hunger risks
The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that "more than 550,000 hectares of agricultural land have been flooded" this year across the country, especially in the Northeast, where malnutrition is already chronic because of the insecurity that reigns in this region.
Mathias Goemaere, a field coordinator for MSF, said that even before the floods, residents in Borno were struggling with malnutrition, following years of the Islamist insurgency that has driven people from their farms.
Meals, shelter and basic necessities are gradually being distributed, but "it's a race against time to help the victims," warned the United Nations coordinator, Malick Fall.
"This crisis comes on top of the one linked to the Boko Haram, which has already displaced many people," for 15 years," he said.
In the last two weeks of August, more than 1.5 million people were displaced across 12 countries in West and Central Africa due to floods, and about 465 have been killed, according to the United Nations humanitarian affairs office.
Prison break
The city centre of Maiduguri was not spared: the market, schools, administrative buildings were hit by the floods.
Last week, as the rains continued to pour, over 280 prisoners even managed to escape a jail in Maiduguri, when its walls collapsed.
Seven of the escaped inmates have been recaptured in operations by security agencies, Umar Abubakar, spokesperson for the Nigeria Correctional Services said in a statement.
"The floods brought down the walls of the correctional facilities including the Medium Security Custodial Centre, as well as the staff quarters in the city," Abubakar said.
Operations to recapture the remainder of the inmates are underway.
(with newswires)
