Severe flooding hampers rescue efforts in Myanmar, at least 27 dead

YANGON, Aug 1, 2015 (AFP) - Severe flooding across Myanmar hampered rescue efforts on Saturday as thousands sheltered at monasteries after rising waters triggered by torrential rains killed at least 27 people, officials said.

Heavy monsoon rain has battered vast swathes of the country in recent weeks, decimating tens of thousands of homes and fields and leaving people stranded in remote villages in a disaster testing the government's limited relief operations.

“Most of the country is flooded now,” said a director at the social welfare ministry who did not want to be named, explaining that all but one of Myanmar's 14 provinces and regions were affected by the flash floods, rising waters and landslides caused by the downpour.

Western Rakhine and Chin states are among the four worst affected areas and on Friday President Thein Sein declared them “national disaster affected regions”, according to the state-backed Global New Light of Myanmar (GNLM) newspaper.

In Maungdaw township in Rakhine, houses and office buildings have been destroyed, trees uprooted and damaged roads sealed off due to violent storms, a local government official told AFP, adding that rescue camps have been opened at monasteries.

Rakhine already hosts some 140,000 displaced people, mainly Rohingya Muslims, who live in exposed make-shift coastal camps following deadly 2012 unrest between the minority group and Buddhists.

“More than 7,000 people are sheltering in rescue camps at 23 monasteries in Minbyar town. We need drinking water urgently. Our road communication is cut,” Khin Zaw Win, a resident in Minbyar, a town in northern Rakhine, told AFP.