At least 40 percent of those killed in Myanmar's cyclone were children and hundreds more have lost their parents, a leading charity said. The UN warned young victims face further trauma.

Children face further trauma - 13 / 05 / 2008 16:20

Part of the reason for the cyclones devastating toll on young people is simple demographics, with 40 percent of Myanmar’s population younger than 18, according to Save the Children spokesman Dan Collinson. But children are also the least able to survive powerful winds and towering tidal waves sparked by Cyclone Nargis, Collinson said.

"To be honest its highly likely to be more than 40 percent, because children are less likely to withstand these kinds of storm surges," Collinson told AFP. "Children are that much more vulnerable," he added.     

Survivors of the cyclone, which left at least 62,000 dead or missing, have told AFP horrific stories of clinging to tree branches as the storm surge swept away their villages, sending waves crashing over the tops of trees.

Parents saw their children ripped from their arms by the powerful currents. Among the children who survived, hundreds have been separated from their parents or become orphans, Collinson said.

"We’ve heard reports of 300 children living in a camp that have been separated" from their parents, said Kathryn Rowe, also of Save the Children. "So they may have extended families there but they have been separated from their parents," she added.

In the hardest-hit regions of the Irrawaddy delta, hungry and barefoot children dressed in rags have been left begging on roadsides.

The United Nations estimates that one fifth of children living in the disaster zone are now suffering from diarrhoea. Without access to clean drinking water, diarrhoea can prove lethal in emergencies such as this.

AFP