The death toll from Cyclone Mocha in Burma has risen to 145, most of them Rohingya, according to a military council statement on Friday, indicating it would “take action” against media outlets reporting more deaths.
This cyclone hit Burma and Bangladesh on Sunday, causing heavy rains and 195 km/h winds, destroying buildings and flooding streets.
The worst storm in more than a decade destroyed villages, uprooted trees and disrupted communications across much of Rakhine State, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya live in displaced persons camps.
“According to the information we received, four soldiers, 24 residents and 117 Bangladeshis died during the hurricane,” the press service of the council said.
The term “Bengali” is used in Burma to refer to the Muslim minority.
A Rohingya village spokesman told AFP that in that village alone, more than 100 people went missing as a result of the cyclone.
Another village official near Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state, told AFP that at least 105 Rohingyas had died on the outskirts of the city, noting that the number was not definitive.
The military council’s statement also said that the information published by the media about the deaths of 400 Rohingyas was “false” and that action would be taken against those who published it.
Since the coup more than two years ago, the military council has arrested dozens of journalists and shut down media outlets it believes were opposed to his regime.
In neighboring Bangladesh, officials denied to AFP that anyone was killed in a cyclone that swept past sprawling refugee camps that house nearly a million Rohingya who fled military repression in Burma in 2017.
