The death toll from Cyclone Mocha in Myanmar has risen to 145.

The death toll from Cyclone Mocha in Myanmar has reached 145, the junta said Friday, with most of the dead belonging to the persecuted Rohingya minority.

Mocha on Sunday brought heavy rain and 195 kilometers per hour (120 mph) winds to Myanmar and neighboring Bangladesh, bringing down buildings and turning streets into rivers.

The storm blew up villages, uprooted trees and cut down communications across much of Myanmar’s conflict-affected area of ​​Rakhine State.

Cyclone loss

The region is home to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees living in displaced persons camps after decades of ethnic conflict.

“A total of 145 local residents died during the cyclone,” the Myanmar government said in a statement.

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The number includes four soldiers, 24 locals and 117 “Bengalis,” he added, using a derogatory term for the Rohingya.

Media reports that 400 Rohingya have died “are not true,” the junta said in a statement, adding that action would be taken against media outlets that published the figure.

In Myanmar, the Rohingya, who are widely considered to be of Bangladeshi origin, are denied citizenship and access to health care and require permission to travel outside their villages.

The head of a Rohingya village had previously told AFP that more than 100 people had gone missing in his village alone since the storm.

Another leader based near the Rakhine state capital Sittwe told AFP that at least 105 Rohingyas have died across the city and the count continues.

ALSO READ: Families seek refuge in Myanmar as Cyclone Mocha approaches

The UN World Food Program said Friday in Geneva that the cyclone left at least 800,000 people in Myanmar in need of emergency food aid and other assistance.

“The cyclone has greatly exacerbated an already difficult situation for millions of people who are already struggling to survive in very difficult conditions,” Anthea Webb, WFP Deputy Director for Asia and the Pacific, told reporters.

– “United Force” –

Junta-backed media reported on Friday that navies and the air force had delivered thousands of bags of rice, and thousands of electricians, firefighters and rescue workers had been deployed throughout Rakhine.

Normal flight service resumed at Sittwe Airport on Thursday, Global New Light of Myanmar reported.

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Several international aid teams, including WFP, have been working in Sittwe this week, according to AFP correspondents.

A junta spokesman did not respond to questions about whether UN agencies would be granted access to displaced persons camps outside of Sittwe, where the Rohingya live.

“The international community’s offers of assistance have been accepted,” state media reported on Tuesday.

“But relief and rehabilitation tasks must be carried out jointly,” Global New Light of Myanmar said.

A military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017 forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, where heartbreaking stories of murder, rape and arson have surfaced.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, who led the army during the crackdown, called the term “Rohingya” “imaginary.”

In neighboring Bangladesh, officials told AFP that no one was killed in the cyclone, which passed close to sprawling refugee camps now home to nearly a million Rohingyas.

Cyclones, analogous to hurricanes in the North Atlantic or typhoons in the northwest Pacific Ocean, are a regular and deadly threat to the coasts of the northern Indian Ocean, home to tens of millions of people.

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Cyclone Nargis, which hit the Ayeyarwaddy Delta in Myanmar in 2008, killed at least 138,000 people.

The previous junta regime faced international criticism for its response to this disaster. He was accused of blocking emergency aid and initially denying access to aid workers and supplies.