Floods brought on by Typhoon Yagi have killed at least 226 people in Myanmar, state media have reported.
The death toll could rise with several dozen people missing, state media said on Tuesday. Yogi, which swept across the region over the past week or so, battered the central provinces of the conflict-torn Southeast Asian country.
About a third of Myanmar’s 55 million people are already in need of humanitarian aid amid a conflict triggered by a coup in February 2021 in which the military unseated the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
The areas hardest hit by the flooding include the capital, Naypyidaw, the second largest city Mandalay, and parts of Shan state, a sprawling province that has seen heavy fighting in recent months.
“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.
In the Mandalay region alone, some 40,000 acres (16,187 hectares) of agricultural land were submerged and some 26,700 houses were damaged by heavy rains and flooding, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also said many flood-hit regions were difficult to reach as several roads were damaged and telecoms and electricity networks disrupted.
“Affected areas include camps for displaced people, including children, who were already struggling with limited services due to ongoing conflict,” the NGO said in a statement.
Typhoon Yagi, the strongest storm to hit Asia so far this year, has left a trail of devastation through Southeast Asia. It killed almost 300 people in Vietnam where it made landfall.
In Thailand, the storm caused heavy rains and flooding that inundated northern cities, including on the border with Myanmar.
At least 45 people have died across Thailand from flooding and flood-related events such as mudslides since last month, according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation.
At least three people were killed and more than 440 families were evacuated in Laos, where flooding across eight provinces swamped 7,825 acres (3,166 hectares) of paddy fields, according to UNICEF.
