Burma cyclone death toll soars past 22,000

Published on Tuesday 6 May 2008 14:33

OFFICIALS in Burma today put the death toll from the weekend cyclone at more than 22,000, as emergency aid started to arrive.

Burma's state-run radio said that 22,464 people have now been confirmed dead from cyclone Nargis, which tore through the country's heartland and biggest city of Rangoon on Saturday. It added that thousands more were missing.

Relief efforts for the stricken area, mostly in the low-lying Irrawaddy River delta, have been difficult, largely because of the destruction of roads and communications outlets by the storm. The first assistance from overseas arrived today from neighbouring Thailand.

Gordon Brown pledged that Britain would do everything possible to assist the Burmese people.

Speaking at a summit of business leaders in London today, the Prime Minister said: "I believe nearly a million people are now in need of food aid and we will have to help the families of those where people have died.

"I want to pledge on behalf of the British government that we will work with the whole international community to make sure that food aid is available to the people of Burma."

Nargis smashed into Burma early Saturday, bringing winds of up to 120mph. More deaths were caused by a resulting 12-foot wave than the cyclone itself, according to the Burmese authorities.

In the city of Bogalay in the Irrawaddy river delta, 95% of homes are thought to have been destroyed.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said the organisation would do "whatever (possible) to provide urgent humanitarian assistance".

Despite initial concerns from the international community, the state's secretive ruling junta has agreed to accept aid – although there are still questions over how much access foreign teams will be allowed.

The UN World Food Programme, which was preparing to fly in food supplies, offered a grim assessment of the destruction. Their representatives said up to a million people were homeless, some villages almost totally destroyed and vast rice-growing areas have been wiped out.

Based on a satellite map made available by the UN, the storm's damage was concentrated over about a 11,600-square-mile area along the Andaman Sea and Gulf of Martaban coastlines – less than five percent of the country. But the affected region is home to nearly a quarter of Burma's 57 million people.

The country's ruling military junta, which has spurned the international community for decades, urgently appealed for foreign aid on Monday.

The appeal came less than a week ahead of the referendum on a military-backed constitution that the junta hoped would go smoothly in its favour, despite opposition from the country's feisty pro-democracy movement. However, the disaster could stir the already tense political situation.

Countries, from Canada to the Czech Republic and Singapore, reacted quickly to the crisis with pledges of aid.

The European Commission was providing 1.5 million in humanitarian aid while the president of neighbouring China, Hu Jintao, promised assistance without offering details.

Diplomats said they were told Burma welcomed international aid including urgently needed roofing materials, medicine, water purifying tablets and mosquito nets.