Fishing communities in western Myanmar\u2019s Rakhine State are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, after their villages were nearly wiped out by Cyclone Mocha which made landfall on May 14 with wind speeds of up to 120 miles per hour.<\/p>\n
Mocha was the second-most powerful storm ever recorded in Myanmar, after 2008\u2019s Cyclone Nargis, and fishing villages along the Rakhine coast were severely battered, according to local volunteer groups. Rohingya fishing communities in Bu Pin village-tract are unable to resume their work as their boats remain damaged by the cyclone or stranded elsewhere. \u201cAlmost all fishing boats were damaged by the storm. So we can only buy tiny fish from vendors, said a Rohingya from Thet Kal Pyin Camp.<\/p>\n
A villager from Thae Chaung Village said over 30 fishing boats from nearby villages have washed up near his village. \u201cI saw over 30 fishing boats stranded on the west side of our village. None of them have been retrieved by their owners yet. Some boats were even washed into the compounds of houses,\u201d he said. Humanitarian assistance reached Thea Chuang Village on May 24, according to local sources. \u201cWe received blankets, a tarpaulin sheet, cooking pot and mosquito net from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,\u201d said a resident.<\/p>\n
Another villager said that while they very much appreciate the aid, he hadn\u2019t received enough tarpaulin sheets to repair his house, while cooking pots, blankets and mosquito nets weren\u2019t needed in his village. In Ma De Village in Pauktaw Township, there was extensive damage after fishing boats and nets were washed away by storm surges, said villagers. One volunteer from Pauktaw said that fishing communities urgently need shelter and food supplies because so many houses and their belongings were destroyed by Cyclone Mocha.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of our communities are poor and it is impossible to rebuild or repair our houses on our own,\u201d said the volunteer. Another volunteer group said that storm surges not only wiped out Thea Khon Village but also swept away fishing boats and equipment, leaving the entire village in despair. An elderly woman from Thea Khon whose life has been devastated by the storm said \u201cshe would rather have died in the storm instead of staying alive\u201d in a video uploaded to Facebook by the Myitta Yaungchi Foundation.<\/p>\n
The Myittar Yaungchi Foundation spokesperson said that they had donated some food supplies to the most vulnerable people in Thea Khon, but were unable to help the entire village due to limited funds. On Pha Yone Kar Island in Pauktaw Township, at least seven fishing businesses were affected by Cyclone Mocha, with many fishing boats lost in the storm, said local sources.<\/p>\n
In Mrauk-U Township, distraught fishermen could not go out fishing as they felt they could not leave their families behind. \u201cWe are all on our own. Our families remain helpless. So we couldn\u2019t go out fishing in this uncertain situation and leave our families behind,\u201d said one fisherman. He added that some residents who lost their homes are currently staying at a monastery in Mrauk-U Town, as they can\u2019t afford to buy tarpaulin sheets to repair their houses. \u201cWe can\u2019t afford to buy tarpaulin sheets due to the rising prices. So it is impossible to repair our house unless we receive aid,\u201d said the fisherman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[178],"tags":[],"region":[],"source":[405],"country":[2145],"state":[],"city":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/102808"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/newss"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/102808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102809,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/102808\/revisions\/102809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102808"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=102808"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=102808"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=102808"},{"taxonomy":"state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/state?post=102808"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=102808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}