SA sends condolences to Myanmar
Bathandwa Mbola
8 May 2008
South Africa has joined the international community in sending its condolences to the people of Myanmar after a cyclone hit the country, killing over 20 000 people and devastating property and infrastructure.
South Africa was ready to join the international community in assisting the people of Myanmar, within its limited resources, in mitigating the effects of this disaster, the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Wednesday.
Myanmar was hit by Cyclone Nargis, which swept through Irrawaddy delta region on Friday, leaving thousands of people dead in its wake and hundreds of thousands without shelter.
The number of people requiring humanitarian assistance could number in the hundreds of thousands, according to the United Nations, which is mobilising aid.
With winds of over 190 kilometres per hour, the storm tore down trees and power lines and caused widespread flooding.
Myanmar authorities have declared five regions - Yangon, Ayeyarwwady, Bago, Mon and Kayin - as disaster areas. The population of these areas is estimated at 24-million, with an estimated 6-million in Yangon. More than 3 000 people are reportedly missing in the Ayeyarwady region alone.
Infrastructure was badly damaged by the cyclone, and aid agencies have warned that the country is facing mass hunger and disease.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has begun distributing food in cyclone-damaged areas of Yangon. The agency has taken initial steps to meet the enormous logistics challenge of bringing in disaster relief supplies, equipment and prepared foods urgently needed by people in badly hit areas.
The WFP now has more than 800 metric tons of food stocks available in its warehouses in Yangon, and will deliver these food resources to all areas in need, including the Ayeryawaddy Division, the largest and hardest hit of the five major divisions affected by the cyclone.
The WFP's $500 000 initial emergency operation will fund the airlifts of food supplies and emergency staff deployments.
The UN refugee agency, for its part, is emptying its emergency shelter material stockpiles in neighbouring Thailand of plastic sheeting and tents for some 10 000 people for urgent dispatch to Yangon.
The supplies will be distributed through a disaster management committee that had been established by the Myanmar government.
Source: BuaNews
