Four-fifths of Burma survivors 'without aid'
Tuesday, 13 May 2008 17:53
Four-fifths of survivors of Cyclone Nargis in Burma yet to receive humanitarian aid, UN warns
Less than one fifth of people affected by Cyclone Nargis in Burma have received humanitarian aid, it has been revealed.
The United Nations says only 270,000 people have been reached by its aid workers or those from partner agencies and the Burmese authorities.
More than 1.5 million people are in need of food, shelter and medical supplies.
Despite the lack of aid getting through, the country's military rulers are adamant there is no need for foreign relief workers to help its distribution.
Speaking in Geneva 12 days after the cyclone struck Burma's Irrawaddy Delta, Elizabeth Byrs of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) called for an "air and sea corridor" to channel aid in larger quantities.
At least 32,000 people have been killed by the cyclone, according to the official death-toll, with a further 34,000 missing.
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has already expressed his "immense frustration" at the Burmese authorities' handling of the relief effort.
"Unless more aid gets into the country – very quickly – we face an outbreak of infectious diseases that could dwarf today's crisis," he said earlier this week.
"I therefore call, in the most strenuous terms, on the government of Myanmar to put its people's lives first. It must do all that it can to prevent the disaster from becoming even more serious."
A statement from the UN on Tuesday said 40 tonnes of shelter supplies, plastic sheets, blankets, kitchen sets and tents had arrived in Burma in the last 24 hours.
A further 4,500 plastic sheets, 17,000 blankets, 1,500 kitchen sets and 75 mosquito nets are due to arrive in the coming days, while the World Food Programme has sent 360 metric tonnes to the south-east
Asian country, although less than half of this has been distributed.