The death toll from severe Myanmar floods has reached 100 and nearly one million people have been affected by the flooding after weeks of heavy monsoon rains, state media reported.
The nationwide death toll from severe flooding has risen to more than 100, and the number of people affected by floods since June reached nearly 1 million nationwide, the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement said Monday, according to state-run The Global New Light of Mynamar (GNLM)
Myanmar declared on July 31 four disaster zones - Rakhine, Chin, Sagaing and Magway - HNGN reported previously. The Rakhine province is worst hit among four zones as more than 50 of the 100 victims died in the province.
The catastrophic flooding has inundated more than 1.2 million acres of rice fields, of which more than 439,400 acres of farmland were completely destroyed, the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation said, according to GNLM.
The governmental education officials also said that the recent deadly floods and landslides have destroyed more than 3,000 schools, forcing them to shut down, according to Xinhua.
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the situation in many areas remained desperate, according to BBC. "People are returning home to nothing with their homes and belongings buried in mud," ICRC's Patrick Fuller said.
The United Nations, however, praised the Myanmar's government for its swift response to crisis. "Very quickly the authorities asked for international support and offered logistical means - planes, helicopters, navy boats - to get humanitarian personnel and equipment to areas that are not currently easily accessible," an U.N. spokesperson Pierre Peron said, according to Reuters.
