Myanmar soldiers help with the cleanup after a typhoon that killed more than 380 people

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar – Soldiers on Monday cleared debris from parts of military-controlled Myanmar where floods and landslides caused by Typhoon Yagi and monsoon rains earlier this month left more than 380 people dead and 89 missing, state media reported.

The death toll in Myanmar was higher than in all other Southeast Asian countries affected by the devastating typhoon combined. According to the ASEAN Humanitarian Coordination Centre, nearly 300 people died in Vietnam, 42 in Thailand, four in Laos and 21 in the Philippines.

General Min Aung Hlaing, the head of Myanmar's military government, said during a ceremony over the weekend to accept cash donations for flood-affected areas that 384 people had been killed and nearly 150,000 affected by the floods, the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper reported.

Efforts to provide assistance and assess casualties and damage have been slow, partly due to communication difficulties with affected areas.

Myanmar is rocked by a civil war that began in 2021 after the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Independent analysts estimate that the ruling military controls far less than half the country.

Another state-run newspaper, the Global New Light of Myanmar, reported on Monday that military, police and firefighters were involved in clean-up efforts in flood-affected areas, including the capital Naypyidaw, as well as Shan states and the Mandalay and Bago regions. They were also helping to repair roads and bridges.

It said cleanup operations were being carried out in Buddhist monasteries, schools, hospitals, clinics and government buildings and medical teams were providing medical care.

An estimated 887,000 people, including those already in refugee camps, were affected in 65 communities in central and eastern Myanmar, according to a report released on Friday by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

Homes, water sources and electricity supplies were destroyed on a large scale, and schools, religious sites and farmland “were severely damaged or completely destroyed,” the report said.

There is an urgent need for drinking water, food, medicine, clothing and shelter, the report said.