OCHA Situation Report No. 34
Myanmar: Cyclone Nargis
23 June 2008


Source:
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

SITUATION OVERVIEW

1. Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar on 2 and 3 May 2008, making landfall in 
the Ayeyarwady Division and hitting the former capital, Yangon. 37 
townships were significantly affected by the cyclone. Current estimates 
suggest that 2.4 million people were affected. 1.3 million people are 
estimated to have been reached so far by International NGOs, the Red 
Cross and the UN. Official figures put the number of dead or missing at 
more than 130,000.

2. A Tripartite Core Group (TCG), consisting of high-level 
representatives of the Government of Myanmar, ASEAN and the UN, was 
established at a donor conference in Yangon on 25 May to oversee the 
coordination of relief assistance. Following the meeting, the 
Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) was initiated to produce a common 
assessment report that covers humanitarian needs (Village Tract 
Assessment/VTA) and damage components (Damage and Loss Assessment/DaLA) 
with support from the Government of Myanmar, ASEAN member states and the 
United Nations. Some 250 members of the PONJA team completed data 
collection in 30 affected townships across Yangon and the Ayeyarwady 
Delta on 20 June. The next stages of data entry and early analysis are 
continuing. A progress report will be presented at the ASEAN roundtable 
meeting in Yangon on 24 June, while the final report is planned for 
release on 18 July.

3. The new Government guidelines for international organizations 
providing assistance in cycloneaffected areas were introduced on 10 
June. On Friday 20 June, a decision was made in the TCGmeeting to revert 
to the procedures in effect before 10 June, where all requests for visas 
for the Nargis relief response, from UN agencies and NGOs, will be 
handled by the TCG and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Requests for 
travel authorizations from all UN agencies and NGOs will again be 
handled by the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement. 
During the weekend, all backlogs of visa requests and travel 
authorization requests were processed and granted, with a few exceptions 
that are still being worked on. As of 19 June, more than 230 visas have 
been granted to the UN international staff for the response to Cyclone 
Nargis, and more than 200 operational UN staff have travelled to the 
affected areas.

NATIONAL RESPONSE

4. The Government of Myanmar's New Light of Myanmar newspaper reports 
that Prime Minister General Thein Sin, who is the Chairman of the 
National Disaster Preparedness Central Committee (NDPCC), accompanied by 
several government officials, visited cyclone affected areas in Bogale 
and Labutta on 21 June to monitor the progress of various rehabilitation 
efforts and handed over relief assistance.

5. IFRC reports that the Myanmar Red Cross Society (MRCS), working with 
the IFRC and the ICRC, has reached more than 327,500 beneficiaries with 
water, food and other relief items as of 20 June.

INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE

The following information is provided by the clusters, which meet 
regularly to coordinate the humanitarian response of national and 
international NGOs, the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement and UN agencies. 
For more detailed up-to-date information relating to cluster activities 
please visit the Humanitarian Information Centre (HIC) website: 
http://myanmar.humanitarianinfo.org

Attachments:
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/retrieveattachments?openagent&docid=1A99E6B9AD0230DF852574710067C608&file=Full_Report.pdf


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