“Government officials should contact foreign countries to receive aid and assistance for the victims,” Min Aung Hlaing said on Friday, according to the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
33 dead
On the same day, junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun announced that floods caused by Typhoon Yagi had killed at least 33 people and displaced “236,649 people”, stating that communications had been cut to some areas .
This catastrophe further compounds the misery in this country, which has been plunged into a humanitarian, security and political crisis since the February 2021 coup against the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
More than 2.7 million people have already been forced from their homes in Burma due to the ongoing civil conflict.
In addition, authorities are investigating unconfirmed reports that dozens of migrant workers have gone missing following landslides in a gold mining area in Mandalay (central) region, the spokesman explained.
Landslides
State media reported that flooding in the region and around the capital Naypyidaw caused landslides and destroyed electrical installations, buildings, roads, bridges and houses.
A resident of Sin Thay, near Naypyidaw, said on Friday that he spent the night in a tree with his two children to protect themselves from the rising waters.
In the Mandalay region, villagers used an elephant to reach flood-free land.
Northern Vietnam, Laos and Thailand were also badly affected by floods and landslides in the wake of Yagi, which brought torrential rains when it hit the region the previous weekend.
Nearly 300 people have died, including 233 in Vietnam, where many are missing and the toll could rise.
In Burma, the junta has blocked international aid or derailed foreign aid programs in the past.
In mid-June 2023, it suspended travel permits for humanitarian groups trying to help the estimated one million victims of Cyclone Mocha in western Burma.
The United Nations denounced an “incomprehensible” decision.