Storm, flooding death toll in Myanmar jumps to 74

Local residents travel by boat on a flooded road in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

The death toll in Myanmar in the wake of Typhoon Yagi has jumped to 74, state media reported on Sunday (September 15, 2024), a day after its junta made a rare request for foreign aid.

Floods and landslides have killed almost 350 people in Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand in the wake of Typhoon Yagi, which hit the region last weekend, according to official figures.

In Myanmar, the floods “resulted in 74 deaths and 89 people missing” as of Friday evening, the Global New Light of Myanmar said.

Search and rescue operations were ongoing, it said, adding that the floods had destroyed more than 65,000 houses and five dams, heaping further misery on the country where war has raged since the military’s 2021 coup.

The junta’s previous death toll was 33, with more than 235,000 people displaced, according to figures released on Friday.

Swathes of farmland have been inundated in central regions, including around the sprawling, low-lying capital Naypyidaw.

There have been reports of landslides in hilly areas but with roads and bridges damaged and phone and internet lines down, compiling information has been difficult.

The Sittaung and Bago rivers, which flow through central and southern Myanmar, were both still above dangerous levels on Sunday, state media said, athough water levels were expected to fall in the coming days.

Authorities in Myanmar had opened 82 “relief camps” to house displaced people, according to state media.

Thailand’s weather office warned Sunday of further heavy rain in provinces along the Mekong river.

Request for aid

The floods have heaped more misery on Myanmar, where more than 2.7 million people have already displaced by conflict.

Myanmar’s junta chief made a rare request for foreign aid to deal with the floods, state media reported on Saturday.

The 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.

On Saturday, the UN’s Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Myanmar and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told AFP they could not currently comment on the junta’s request.

Heavy monsoon rains lash Southeast Asia every year, but human-made climate change is causing more intense weather patterns that can make destructive floods more likely.

Climate change is causing typhoons to form closer to the coast, intensify faster and stay longer over land, according to a study published in July.