Yangon: After the deadly Cyclone Mocha tore through Myanmar, the United Nations made an emergency funding appeal on Tuesday for $333 million to help the 1.6 million people it claimed were affected.

On May 14, Mocha pounded Myanmar and neighbouring Bangladesh with torrential rain and winds that gusted to 195 kilometres per hour, causing buildings to collapse and turning streets into rivers.

The junta in Myanmar has reported 148 deaths, the majority of whom were members of the marginalised Rohingya minority in western Rakhine state.

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Prior to the rainy season, the UN's humanitarian affairs office requested $333 million to help with the provision of shelter, medical services, food, and clean water.

In order to provide people with safe shelter in all affected communities and stop the spread of water-borne diseases, we are currently in a race against time, said Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Ramanathan Balakrishnan.

According to the statement, Myanmar will receive more than $200 million in total humanitarian aid this year, of which $122 million will go towards new relief efforts for the cyclone's victims.

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Later, Balakrishnan told reporters that the UN was hoping for approval soon to provide assistance to communities in Rakhine.

There are hundreds of thousands of Rohingya living in the state, many of whom are displaced due to a protracted ethnic conflict.

Following a military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017, thousands of Rohingya fled into Bangladesh, where horrifying tales of murder, rape, and arson emerged.

In response to inquiries about whether UN agencies would be permitted access to Rohingya relocation camps in Rakhine, a junta spokesman remained silent.

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The leader of the Junta, Min Aung Hlaing, who oversaw the army during the 2017 uprising, has called the term "Rohingya" "imaginary."
No one was reported dead in Bangladesh, where the cyclone passed close to large refugee camps that are now home to almost a million Rohingya.

The appeal was made after the UN's food agency announced on Monday that it had been forced to reduce food aid for the roughly one million Rohingya refugees living in camps in Bangladesh for the second time in three months due to a lack of funding.