Myanmar junta makes rare request for foreign aid to cope with deadly floods

Myanmar’s junta chief made a rare request Saturday for foreign aid to cope with deadly floods that have displaced
hundreds of thousands of people who have 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 Friday, piling further misery on the country where war
has raged since the military seized power in 2021.

“Officials from the government need to contact foreign countries to receive
rescue and relief aid to be provided to the victims,” Min Aung Hlaing said on
Friday, according to the 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.

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 the central Mandalay region.

– Aid restrictions –

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.”

AFP has contacted a spokesperson for the UN in Myanmar for comment.

After cyclone Nargis killed at least 138,000 people in Myanmar in 2008, the
then-junta was accused of blocking emergency aid and initially refusing to
grant access to humanitarian workers and supplies.

Military trucks carried small rescue boats to flood-hit areas around the
military-built capital Naypyidaw on Saturday, AFP reporters said.

On Friday hundreds of villagers waded or swam through chin-high waters to
safety following floods around the capital.

Some told AFP they had sheltered in trees overnight to escape the raging
flood waters below.

State media said flooding in the area around the capital had caused
landslides and destroyed electricity towers, buildings, roads, bridges and
houses.

More than 2.7 million people were already displaced in Myanmar by conflict
triggered by the junta’s 2021 coup. (BSS/AFP)