YANGON (AFP) – The death toll in Myanmar in the wake of Typhoon Yagi has reached 268, with 88 people missing, the junta has said, as state media reported the first arrival of foreign aid.
Yagi swept across northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar more than a week ago, triggering floods and landslides that have killed 588 people across the region, according to official figures.
The floods in 56 townships in Myanmar had resulted in “268 deaths and 88 people missing”, the junta’s information team said in a statement on Wednesday.
It also said that nearly 270,000 hectares (more than 660,000 acres) of rice and other crops had been submerged, and more than 100,000 farm animals killed.
The previous death toll reported by state TV was 226, with 77 people missing.
The floods have heaped more misery on a country where millions were already displaced by more than three years of conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup.
The UN has warned that as many as 630,000 people could be in need of assistance in Myanmar in the wake of Typhoon Yagi.
Last weekend the junta issued a rare appeal for foreign aid to help cope with the disaster.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has “ordered all to carry out rehabilitation tasks to return to normality within six months”, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported on Thursday.
On Wednesday an Indian navy ship delivered aid including dried food, clothes, medicine and tents at Thilawa port in commercial hub Yangon, the newspaper said.
