Daily Times

More than 70 people have been killed and 89 remain missing in the wake of Typhoon Yagi, Asia’s most powerful storm this year, in Myanmar, state media reported on Sunday. Myanmar’s junta chief made a rare request on Saturday for foreign aid to deal with the floods and and landslides. The UN’s Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs in Myanmar and the International Committee of the Red Cross has told AFP they cannot currently comment on the junta’s request.

The death toll in Myanmar in the wake of Typhoon Yagi has jumped to 74, state media reported on Sunday, a day after its junta made a rare request for foreign aid.

Floods and landslides have killed almost 350 people in Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand in the wake of Typhoon Yagi, which hit the region last weekend, according to official figures.

In Myanmar, the floods “resulted in 74 deaths and 89 people missing” as of Friday evening, the Global New Light of Myanmar said.

Search and rescue operations were ongoing, it said, adding that the floods had destroyed more than 65,000 houses and five dams, heaping further misery on the country where war has raged since the military’s 2021 coup.

The junta’s previous death toll was 33, with more than 235,000 people displaced, according to figures released on Friday.

Swathes of farmland have been inundated in central regions, including around the sprawling, low-lying capital Naypyidaw. There have been reports of landslides in hilly areas but with roads and bridges damaged and phone and internet lines down, compiling information has been difficult.