Headlines
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will meet Burmese leader General Than Shwe on Friday.
The Burmese Government has agreed to the World Food Programme (WFP) bringing in nine helicopters to distribute aid to cyclone-hit areas.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has agreed to lead the international assistance effort. An ASEAN/UN donor conference is to be held in Rangoon on Sunday 25 May.
Only about 500,000 of the estimated 2.43 million people affected have received some form of international assistance.
Eighteen aid flights arrived in Rangoon yesterday and 10 are due to arrive today.
The WFP has contracted three barges and 30 trucks to bring relief supplies into the cyclone-hit areas.
Issues
- The capacity at Rangoon airport to receive, process and clear flights is still limited.
- In the Irrawaddy delta, 150,000 people are living in 120 temporary settlements.
- Many UN staff are still waiting for visas to be granted or renewed.
- Health concerns are increasing, including the need for basic medical assistance and psycho-social care.
- Heavy rains are continuing and conditions for road transportation remain poor in delta areas.
DFID's response to date
The UK's overall support so far stands at £17 million, the largest pledge to Burma. Of this, more than £4.6 million has been allocated to aid agencies and will provide clean drinking water, sanitation facilities, basic healthcare and emergency shelter.
The agencies are:
- Save the Children
- Medecins Sans Frontieres
- Merlin
- Care
- Action Against Hunger
A further £5 million will provide logistical and relief supplies. £7 million will go to the UN Flash Appeal (of which £5 million will go immediately to WFP to provide urgent logistical support for the growing relief operation).
A second round of funding to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is currently under consideration. DFID has provided logistics experts in Bangkok and Rangoon to help manage the delivery of relief supplies. This is in addition to a six-person DFID emergency team deployed to Burma.
Five UK aid flights have arrived in Rangoon during the last week. They have unloaded and cleared:
- 30,000 plastic sheets/tarpaulins for emergency shelter.
- 13,000 collapsible jerry cans.
- 14 flat-bottomed distribution boats and engines, critical to the emergency response, designed to navigate inland waters. (Two expert trainers are also on hand to ensure operational and maintenance training for recipients).
- 1,000 hygiene kits.
All DFID-donated plastic tarpaulins arrived safely at Save the Children's warehouse and most have already been distributed through its ground network, targeting the Western Delta region. DFID-donated distribution boat have been tested and will be used for bulk distributions into the Delta. The UK currently has naval assets on stand-by in the region
Background
- Category 3 Cyclone Nargis made landfall on 2 May in the Irrawaddy delta region.
- The UN Flash Appeal has increased to US$201 million, of which 23% has been funded.
- Official Burmese state figures stand at 78,000 dead and 56,000 missing.
- The UN and the Red Cross report that 69,000-128,000 people are dead.Back to to