Death toll rises to 88 in Myanmar floods

Heavy flooding in large parts of Myanmar raised the death toll to 88, the state press reported Friday.

Myanmar’s President Thein Sein called for the evacuation of residents in lowlying areas in Ayeyarwaddy region, where several rivers including Irrawaddy have exceeded danger levels and could overflow their banks.

“As we cannot prevent natural disasters, I urge fellow citizens to move to safer places,” Sein said in a message broadcast on radio.

Incessant monsoon rain since July and cyclone Komen a week ago, caused major flooding that has affected at least 330,000 people and swept 12 of the country’s 14 provinces.

With 55 deaths, the western state of Rakhine, one of the four regions declared a disaster zone by the government, is the worst affected according to the newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar.

Since the wave of sectarian violence in 2012 around 100,000 Rohingyas, a persecuted Muslim minority community in the country, live there in refugee camps that have suffered ‘extensive damage’, say humanitarian agencies.

According to the ministry of social welfare, floods have displaced some 85,400 people, and destroyed 10,956 houses and 900 square kilometers (347.5 square miles) of agricultural land.

The Burmese government requested for international aid earlier this week to help the thousands affected and admitted its “weak response” in coping with the disaster.

Humanitarian agencies have distributed 387 tonnes of food, 620,000 water purification tablets and medical supplies among some 103,000 people, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Almost every year, heavy monsoon rains between June and October cause floods in Burma.