The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has mobilized the 10th batch of humanitarian support for the communities affected by tropical Cyclone Mocha in Myanmar on 26 June.

The ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre) facilitated this latest delivery of U$37,000 USD worth of relief items including emergency shelter tool kits and a manual water filtration system.

In the previous week, $393,000 USD worth of relief items were also shipped from the Disaster Emergency Logistics System for ASEAN (DELSA) warehouse in Subang, Malaysia, to Yangon, according to the press release of the ASEAN Chairman’s statement, adding that the bloc has provided around $1.6 million USD worth of humanitarian assistance to Myanmar under this cyclone programme.

The destructive tropical Cyclone Mocha negatively affected an estimated 7.9 million people across five states and regions of Myanmar – Rakhine, Chin, Sagaing, Magway, and Kachin.

Although aid deliveries are arriving in Myanmar from abroad, concern has been voiced over Myanmar junta red tape that has caused problems in passing on the aid to those in need.

Human Rights Watch said on 20 June that the Myanmar junta’s increasing obstruction of humanitarian aid in the month since Cyclone Mocha has put thousands of lives at immediate risk and endangered millions of people.

HRW also said that since the cyclone made landfall on 14 May, junta authorities have refused to authorize travel and visas for aid workers, release urgent supplies from customs and warehouses, or relax onerous and unnecessary restrictions on lifesaving assistance.

It also asked the governments to put the junta under pressure to lift all restrictions on aid delivery without relenting on the need to hold junta officials responsible for their ongoing human rights abuses.