Rangoon, May 16: State television reports the official death toll from Burma’s devastating cyclone has climbed to 77,738.
The figure was broadcast on Friday night.
It was nearly double the figure released on Thursday by the military government. The official count for the missing also soared to 55,917, from a figure of 27,838 that had been announced for the past few days.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies estimated on Wednesday that the total death toll may be as many as 128,000. Meanwhile, the UN has said more than 100,000 may have died.
The United Nations said on Friday that severe restrictions by Burma’s military junta have left aid agencies largely in the dark about the extent of survivors’ suffering two weeks after a killer cyclone left up to 2.5 million people destitute.
John Holmes, UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, will go to Burma on Sunday to try to convince junta leaders to grant more access for UN relief workers and massively scale up aid efforts, said Amanda Pitt, a UN spokeswoman in Bangkok, Thailand. Officials of various UN agencies called a press conference in Bangkok to give an update on their relief operations.
They also couldn’t say whether all survivors are in camps, on the move or still living in destroyed villages in the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta, an area the size of Austria. Cyclone Nargis also pounded Rangoon, Burma’s main city.
"The risk increases with each passing day," Ms Pitt said, referring to the vulnerability of survivors to outbreaks of disease and other problems. Even the death toll has not been confirmed."
"Everyone is still using a range of figures because we don’t have data yet. Access is making that difficult ... We simply don’t have the information, and I can’t say when we will have it," said a UN official. The UN estimates some 1.5 million to 2.5 million survivors are in desperate need of food, water, shelter and medical care. (AP)
