Relief organizations were awaiting clearance from Myanmar’s military rulers on Wednesday to access areas of Rakhine State devastated by a deadly cyclone three days ago, and deliver food and medicine to communities in urgent need.
Hundreds of people are estimated to have been killed in the impoverished region after cyclone Mocha on Sunday tore down houses, communication towers and bridges with winds of up to 210kph and triggered a storm surge that inundated the state capital Sittwe.
Residents contacted by Reuters said no help had arrived even days after the storm and volunteers were digging through debris to search for the missing.
One resident who declined to be identified for safety reasons said about 400 people had died and more were at risk of dying “for not having food, purified water and emergency treatment. There are no ... search and rescue teams.”
Rakhine State, with a population of more than three million, is particularly vulnerable, and is home to the persecuted Rohingya Muslims minority that successive governments in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar have refused to recognize.
Some 600,000 Rohingya still live in the state, while more than a million live in sprawling camps in neighboring Bangladesh, having fled military crackdowns in recent years. Some still embark on perilous boat journeys to Malaysia and Indonesia.
United Nations agencies said they were still awaiting a green light from authorities to assess and distribute supplies in affected areas, some of which were inaccessible due to extensive damage.
“We have established communications channels with all authorities in Myanmar. We have asked for unrestricted access to affected communities,” said Pierre Peron, a spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The UN Development Programme, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and UN refugee agency UNHCR also said their requests were pending approval.
“It is important for humanitarian actors to ascertain damage, needs and provide immediate lifesaving assistance, not least as the monsoon season nears,” UNHCR spokesperson Reuben Lim Wende said.
State media on Wednesday said junta leader Min Aung Hlaing had visited affected areas in Bagan, another region, and separately met with a UNHCR representative to discuss relief efforts.
It said military vessels and helicopters had transported aid to Rakhine and 21 people, including security force personnel doing rescue work, had died as a result of the storm. A spokesperson for the junta could not be reached.
About 5.4 million people were expected to have been in the storm’s path, the majority of whom were considered vulnerable.
Aid groups seek green light from Myanmar junta to access cyclone-hit state
https://arab.news/jvedj
Aid groups seek green light from Myanmar junta to access cyclone-hit state
- Hundreds of people are estimated to have been killed in the impoverished Rakhine State
- Some 600,000 Rohingya still live in the state, while more than a million live in camps in neighboring Bangladesh
8 in 10 British Muslims face ‘financial faith penalty’ when seeking home finance, survey finds
- Restricted choices plague potential buyers
LONDON: Eight in 10 British Muslims say their home finance choices are restricted because of their faith, according to a new national survey that highlighted what researchers describe as a growing “financial faith penalty” in the UK housing market.
The report, published by Islamic home finance fintech firm Offa, found that 80 percent of Muslim respondents believe their religious beliefs limit their access to suitable home finance, while those who do use Islamic products often face slower decisions, heavier paperwork and poorer customer experiences than in the conventional mortgage market.
Based on surveys of 1,000 British Muslims conducted by Muslim Census, and 2,000 non-Muslims carried out by OnePoll, the research calls on providers, brokers and policymakers to modernize Islamic home finance and improve access to Sharia-compliant products.
Among the 24.3 percent of British Muslims who have used Islamic home finance, just 5 percent said they had received a same-day decision.
Some 62 percent waited up to two weeks, while 33 percent waited more than 15 days, including 16 percent who waited over a month.
Long decision times were cited as the biggest challenge by 28 percent of respondents, followed by excessive paperwork (22.6 percent) and poor customer service (18.9 percent).
Islamic home finance differs from conventional mortgages by avoiding interest and steering investment away from sectors considered harmful to society, including gambling, alcohol, tobacco, arms trading and animal testing.
Sagheer Malik, chief commercial officer and managing director of home finance at Offa, said the findings showed British Muslims were being underserved by outdated systems.
Malik said: “Property is the asset class of choice for many of the UK’s 3.87 million Muslims, both as a route to generational wealth and as a long-term financial foundation, yet our insightful research report reveals that British Muslims are being underserved and deterred by slow, outdated and opaque Islamic home finance provision.
“This is not a niche concern. It goes to the heart of financial fairness and inclusion in modern Britain.”
He added that Muslims deserved Sharia-compliant products that matched mainstream standards on “price, speed and simplicity.”
Despite strong demand, uptake remains low.
Only 12.8 percent of British Muslims surveyed said they currently use Islamic home finance, with a further 11.5 percent having done so in the past. More than three quarters (75.7 percent) have never used it.
Faith plays a central role in financial decisions, with 94.2 percent saying it is important that their financial products align with their ethical or religious beliefs. Yet more than half of those using conventional mortgages said they felt unhappy or uneasy about doing so because of their faith.
The study also found that British Muslims share similar home ownership aspirations to the wider population, with 79.1 percent citing the desire to provide a stable home for their family, while 18.6 percent said building generational wealth was their main motivation. Only 2.2 percent said they did not want to own a home.
The report suggests Islamic finance could appeal beyond Muslim communities. While 64 percent of non-Muslim respondents had never heard of Islamic home finance, 63 percent said they favored its ethical principles once explained.
Younger generations were the most receptive, with 43 percent of Generation Z and 37 percent of millennials saying they would consider using Islamic home finance, compared with just 7 percent of baby boomers. More than three quarters of Gen Z and 72 percent of millennials also said it was important that their finance provider avoided investing in ethically harmful sectors.
Offa said the findings pointed to an opportunity to expand ethical finance in the UK, provided the industry can deliver faster, simpler and more transparent services.
