Myanmar floods affect 390,000 people, UN says

Severe monsoon flooding in Myanmar has affected an estimated 390,000 people since July, including people already displaced by civil war, the UN said.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the flooding had hit Sagaing, Rakhine, Irrawaddy and Kachin, with about 230,000 people affected in Sagaing alone.

Villages and paddy fields in central Myanmar have been swamped. In Wetlet township in Sagaing, residents said families had fled rising water and that temporary shelters used by war-displaced people had been submerged.

Myanmar's Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement said that as of August 11, heavy rainfall and river flooding in Sagaing had forced more than 11,400 people from 3,220 households to relocate to flood relief centres.

OCHA spokesman Pierre Peron said the organisation did not yet have figures for the number of people displaced by the heavy rains. He said ongoing monsoon rainfall and several major rivers at or above danger levels meant the impact of flooding was expected to continue in the coming days and weeks.

Peron said UN partners were mobilising to help the most vulnerable, and that flood damage to homes, shelters, infrastructure and farmland had worsened needs for food, health services, safe water and livelihood support.