After Vietnam, Typhoon Yagi came for war-ravaged Myanmar

The death toll from floods and landslides in Myanmar caused by the remnants of Typhoon Yagi is now believed to be in the hundreds and more people remain missing, compounding the suffering of a population already devastated by the nation’s civil war.

More than 630,000 people in Myanmar are thought to be affected by flooding, according to the UN, though it is exceptionally difficult to collect information because of safety risks and the long, oppressive hand of the military dictatorship.

Flood victims at temporary camp opened at a monastery in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, on Sunday.Credit: AP

Even before the typhoon, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated 18.6 million people out of Myanmar’s total population of 55 million needed humanitarian assistance.

Yagi made landfall in northern Vietnam – where deaths stand at more than 250 – on September 7 with wind speeds of up to 149km/h. It had earlier caused 20 deaths in the Philippines and four in China’s Hainan province.

Sweeping west as a tropical depression, Yagi’s flooding also killed at least 10 people in northern Thailand.

The situation in Myanmar is most dire in the central regions, where numerous rivers flow from the hills. Floods have hit 59 townships in nine regions and states, including the junta-controlled capital of Naypyidaw.

“Multiple sources indicate that hundreds of people have died, with many more missing,” OCHA said in an update on Tuesday morning.

“Food, drinking water, medicine, clothes, dignity kits, and shelters have been reported as urgent needs.”

The crisis has been exacerbated by the regular monsoon rains and the already desperate situation on the ground.

OCHA’s aid effort in Myanmar is chronically underfunded: the international community has provided only a quarter of the almost $US1 billion ($1.4 billion) required as part of the 2024 humanitarian response plan to the war.

Residents travel by boat through a flooded road in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on Sunday.Credit: AP

Safety concerns, road blockages and telecommunications remain key issues for aid groups. Another challenge is to get money and supplies to where they are needed most without falling into the hands of the junta, which seized power from the democratically elected government in 2021.

“More resources are urgently needed to sustain the delivery of emergency assistance,” OCHA said. “All partners have limited capacity to respond to the needs, especially partners in the south-east.”

The Australian government said at the weekend it was sending $3 million in aid to hard-hit Vietnam. This masthead asked Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade if it would provide additional help for Myanmar. It will not, at least for now.

“We continue to support the people of Myanmar through our humanitarian and development assistance, estimated at $121.4 million in 2024-25,” a DFAT spokesman said.

Rescue workers search for the missing after floods in Vietnam’s Lao Cai province on Sunday.Credit: AP

“Australia does not provide direct funding to the regime and takes proactive steps to ensure Australian assistance does not legitimise or give credibility to the regime.”

It was not clear where Australia was sending the humanitarian and development money cited by the spokesman. The most recent UNHCR funding report showed the government had earmarked less than $6 million for Myanmar this year. The most recent OCHA figures listed Australia’s total contribution to the body, which attends to numerous crises, at $9.8 million.

Amid the fighting in Myanmar, “even basic health services have collapsed”, Samuel David Theodore of Médecins Sans Frontières told this masthead recently – before the arrival of Typhoon Yagi.

“People don’t have access to vaccinations or drugs. Women and their babies are dying because they can’t get caesarean sections. Children are dying from conditions that would be treated easily in any functional hospital.”

The UN reported in June that at least 5280 civilians, more than a third of them women and children, had been killed by the military junta since the coup and about 3 million people were internally displaced.

Hundreds more civilians have allegedly been killed by the Arakan Army, one of the many armed groups fighting the junta for control of their lands.

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