More than 400 people are dead in Myanmar’s Rakhine state from Cyclone Mocha, which made landfall Sunday on the coast between Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district and Myanmar Kyaukpyu township, a rights group said.
The Arakan Rohingya National Alliance (ARNA) in a statement on Wednesday said that coastal villages in Rakhine’s capital Sittwe suffered extensive damage and more than 400 people, mostly Muslims, lost their lives and the death toll is expected to rise.
It added that over 10,000 homes were also destroyed.
Cyclone Mocha – one of the most powerful storms to ever hit the region – made landfall Sunday, leaving a trail of death and destruction. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center said it entered Rakhine’s coast with wind speeds of more than 135 miles (217 kilometers) per hour.
According to the latest statement by the United Nations, the storm surge has risen to 9-9.5 feet in the low-lying areas of Arakan and Bangladesh’s coasts.
