Floods in Myanmar have killed at least 226 people in just over a week, according to state media, after Typhoon Yagi poured heavy rains to the country’s war-torn central provinces.
Around a third of Myanmar’s 55 million people are already in need of humanitarian help as a result of the ongoing turmoil sparked by a February 2021 coup in which the powerful military deposed Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian administration.
The flooding has devastated the second-largest city of Mandalay, the capital Naypyitaw, and sections of Shan State, a wide province that has seen heavy warfare in recent months.
According to state media, over 77 people are still missing, state media said.
“A total of 388 relief camps were opened in nine regions and states, and the well-wishers donated drinking water, food, and clothes,” reported the Global New Light of Myanmar, the newspaper of the military government.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), torrential rains and flooding buried approximately 40,000 acres of agricultural land in the Mandalay region alone, causing damage to 26,700 dwellings.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also stated that many affected areas were difficult to visit due to damaged roads and broken phone and energy networks.
“Affected areas include camps for displaced people, including children, who were already struggling with limited services due to ongoing conflict,” UNICEF said in a statement.
Typhoon Yagi, the strongest typhoon to hit Asia this year, wreaked havoc across Southeast Asia, killing at least 292 people in Vietnam, where it made landfall.
The storm brought torrential rainfall and flooding in Thailand’s northern cities, notably those near the Myanmar border.
The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation reports that at least 45 people have perished in Thailand as a result of flooding and flood-related incidents such as mudslides since last month.
According to UNICEF, at least three individuals were murdered and over 440 households were evacuated in Laos, where flooding in eight provinces submerged 7,825 acres of paddy fields.
