Wednesday, January 5

Hundreds of Myanmar fishermen likely killed

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Geneva
Hundreds of fishermen were probably killed in Myanmar by Indian Ocean killer waves, the World Food Programme said Tuesday, as Yangon put the tsunami toll at 53 killed and 21 missing. ‘We are afraid that hundreds of fishermen may have died,’ a WFP spokesman, Simon Pluess, said. ‘Some 30,000 people are in immediate need of shelter, food, drinking water and medical drugs,’ he added. Yangon made an appeal for international aid on December 30, four days after the tsunami devastated Indian Ocean coastlines after initially believing that the problem could be resolved by local means, said the spokesman. On Saturday, official Myanmar media reported that 53 people had died in the waves in 17 fishing villages. Another 21 people were reported missing, 43 injured and 778 homeless.

RB

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