Cyclone Mocha killed at least 60 people in Myanmar on Tuesday (May 16th), according to local officials and junta-backed media, as people tried to rehabilitate devastated homes in the hope of receiving aid.

With winds of up to 195 km/h, Mocha hit Sunday between Sittwe, capital of Myanmar's Rakhine State, and Cox's Bazar in neighboring Bangladesh, where camps are set up for Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority, who fled the violence of the Burmese army.

Twenty-four villagers died in Khaung Doke Kar and 17 in Bu Ma, near Sittwe, local officials and residents told AFP. "There will be more deaths because more than a hundred people are missing," warns Karlo, head of Bu Ma.

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Thirteen people were killed in the collapse of a monastery in Rathedaung township, north of Sittwe, and a woman died in a nearby locality when a building collapsed, state broadcaster MRTV reported Tuesday.

The junta's latest tally on Monday put five dead and an unspecified number injured. It is not known whether any of the deaths from these localities were included in this count.

Mocha, the biggest storm in more than a decade in the region, also ravaged Rohingya villages and camps in Rakhine State.

"I lost my wife, four daughters, three sons and a granddaughter"

On Tuesday morning, residents of Bu Ma were walking the seaside in search of relatives missing since the cyclone, AFP journalists found.

Nearby, Aa Bul Hu Son, 66, had just buried her daughter, the ninth member of her family killed by the cyclone. "I just found her body in the village lake and buried her immediately," he told AFP. "I was not in good health before the cyclone, we delayed decamping," he said. "We were going to leave, suddenly the waves came up and swept us away (...) I lost my wife, four daughters, three sons and a granddaughter."

Communications were slowly recovering Tuesday in Sittwe, home to about 150,000 people, as roads were cleared and the internet restored, AFP journalists found.

Beijing said it was "willing to provide emergency assistance in the event of a disaster," according to a statement posted by the Chinese embassy in Myanmar on its Facebook page.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it was seeking to confirm reports that Rohingya in displacement camps had died in the storm.

"Warmer oceans allow storms to gain power quickly"

UNHCR is "trying to conduct detailed assessments in IDP camps and at different sites to get a clearer picture of the situation," he said.

Despite living in Myanmar for generations, most Rohingya do not have access to citizenship, health or education in the Buddhist-majority country, which the military has ruled since the February 1, 2021 coup.

In recent years, improved weather forecasting and more effective evacuations have drastically reduced the number of deaths in the path of cyclones.

According to the organization ClimateAnalytics, the rise in temperatures induced by climate change may have contributed to the intensity of Mocha. "Warmer oceans allow storms to gain power quickly, with devastating consequences for people," said Peter Pfleiderer, a member of the organization.

In 2008, Cyclone Nargis devastated Burma's Irrawaddy Delta, killing at least 138,000 people. The government at the time faced international criticism for its handling of the natural disaster, accusing it of blocking emergency aid and denying access to workers and humanitarian supplies.

With AFP

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