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A6 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 22 June 2022
Dozens dead, thousands homeless in Bangladesh, India floods

By AL-EMRUN GARJON and many of the flooded areas
ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL by helicopter on Tuesday
Associated Press and urged regional leaders
SYLHET, Bangladesh (AP) to speed up relief efforts at
— Villagers in northeast- a meeting with them.
ern Bangladesh crowded So far, reports of fatalities
makeshift refugee centers in Bangladesh range be-
and scrambled to meet tween 12 and 32, but the
boats arriving with food U.N. children’s agency
and fresh water as massive said about 4 million peo-
floods, which have killed ple have been cut off by
dozens of people and dis- the floods in the country’s
placed hundreds of thou- northeast and are in urgent
sands there and in neigh- need of help.
boring India, continued to UNICEF said in a report
wreak havoc Tuesday. Monday that they include
In Sylhet, one of the worst- 1.6 million children and that
hit areas in the extreme without fresh drinking wa-
northeast of the country ter, they could be in serious
near the border with India, danger of waterborne dis-
villagers waded, swam and eases.
paddled makeshift rafts or In the Sylhet region, 90% of
small skiffs to a boat deliv- health facilities have been
ering aid that had moored A flood affected family waits for the help at marooned Tarabari village, west of Gauhati, in the flooded and thousands of
to one shelter, its ground northeastern Indian state of Assam, Monday, June 20, 2022. people have taken refuge
floor covered half way to Associated Press in overcrowded shelters,
the ceiling with water. “Some people have been more variable, meaning state that overlook Bangla- the agency said.
The low-lying village along without water at home for that much of the rain that desh’s plains, more than At one makeshift shelter,
the Surma River is prone to three days,” he said. “They would typically fall in a sea- 970 millimeters (38 inches) a village woman shared a
flooding, but with the ex- have no food at home and son is arriving in a shorter of rain was recorded on small room with more than
treme rainfall at the start can’t get to the market to period. Sunday alone, according a half dozen others and
of this year’s monsoon sea- buy supplies.” Meghalaya, the moun- to India’s Meteorological two of her family’s cattle,
son, villager Mehedi Hasan Monsoon rains in South Asia tainous region of India to Department. saying she had been left
Parvez said he’s never seen typically begin in June. But the north of Sylhet, and Meghalaya has already with little choice.
anything this bad. this year heavy downpours neighboring Assam state, received 174% of its total On the other side of the
“In some cases even the lashed northeastern India renowned for its tea plan- average June rainfall over mountain range to the
second story of buildings and Bangladesh as early tations, have seen far more the first three weeks of the north of Sylhet in India’s
has been inundated,” the as March, triggering floods rain in June than usual. month. Assam state, the torrential
local businessman said, sit- as early as April in Bangla- In the settlements of Assam is at 97% of its aver- rains sent the Brahmaputra
ting in a small boat as he desh. With rising global Mawsynram and Cherra- age for the month over the River spilling over its banks
waited his turn to receive temperatures due to cli- punji, some of the world’s same period. in many areas, causing
a package of rice, canned mate change, experts say wettest areas on the south- Bangladesh Prime Minis- destruction and triggering
goods and other staples. the monsoon is becoming ern fringes of Meghalaya ter Sheikh Hasina surveyed massive landslides. q

E.U. calls on Ethiopia to reconnect Tigray region to the world

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia “I do not see the rationale pia’s government to lift re- Lenarcic said, and noted aid because they cannot
(AP) — The European Union for keeping the blockade strictions on fuel and cash that many people in Tigray access money in their bank
says Ethiopia’s government of banking services, elec- entering Tigray and said depend entirely on such accounts.q
must reconnect its northern tricity and telecommuni- “monitoring mechanisms”
Tigray region to the world cations in place,” Lenar- could be put in place to al-
as a yearlong partial block- cic said, adding that the lay government fears that
ade has left food aid for al- “partial blockade” of the Tigray forces might divert
most 1 million hungry peo- Tigray region is hampering fuel for military purposes.
ple stuck in warehouses humanitarian efforts while The United Nations this
without the fuel to deliver it. 5.2 million people need aid month said enough food to
Janez Lenarcic, the EU after 19 months of conflict. feed 950,000 people is cur-
commissioner for crisis man- Tigray has been mostly cut rently stuck in warehouses
agement, told reporters on off from the rest of Ethiopia in the regional capital, Me-
Tuesday that the recent in- after Tigray forces re-cap- kele, because there is not
crease in aid convoys arriv- tured the regional capital enough fuel to distribute it
ing in Tigray was a positive a year ago and federal within Tigray after several
development but added forces withdrew. A truce fuel tankers were refused
that “more needs to be declared by the govern- access to the region.
done” before the EU nor- ment in March has led to “We have a situation
malizes relations with Af- a significant increase in aid where the warehouses are An Ethiopian woman argues with others over the allocation of
rica’s second-most popu- reaching Tigray by road af- full, but the aid cannot get yellow split peas after it was distributed by the Relief Society
lous country with 115 million ter months of deprivation. out into the countryside of Tigray in the town of Agula, in the Tigray region of northern
people. Lenarcic called on Ethio- where needs are highest,” Ethiopia on May 8, 2021. Associated Press