Dhaka - The United States Marine Corps has launched a massive humanitarian mission for hundreds of thousands of cyclone survivors in the southern coastal belt of Bangladesh, launching helicopters from a makeshift airbase in the river port of Barisal, officials said on Sunday. Local disaster management officials said Barisal was chosen as the location for an airbase for the Marines in order to coordinate the delivery of food, bottled water and medicines to the stricken cyclone survivors.
The US Marines arrived over the weekend aboard the US warship USS Kearsarge to help Bangladesh deal with the aftermath of the super- cyclone SIDR, which pulverized the fragile coastline on November 16.
Bangladeshi rescue officials and private charities are yet to arrive at identical figures on the number of people killed in the storm, which saw wind speeds touching 220 kilometres per hour.
"There have been no further reports on the recovery of human bodies since the death toll figure reached 3,199 on Saturday," Bangladesh armed forces' spokesman Colonel Main Ullah Chowdhury said.
About 4 million people in 12 districts in south-western Bangladesh were hit by the cyclone that razed villages, toppled trees and disrupted road and rail links. Most of the affected are poor fishermen, rice growers and shrimp farmers.
An estimated 1 million people have to be sheltered against the upcoming biting winter while another 2.6 million living in absolute poverty need food provisions.
