<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">The death toll in cyclone-hit villages of Myanmar's Rakhine state rose to at least 41 on Tuesday, local leaders told AFP.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Packing winds of up to 195 kilometres (120 miles) per hour, Mocha made landfall on Sunday, downing power pylons and smashing wooden fishing boats to splinters.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We can confirm there are 17 deaths," Karlo, the administrator of Bu Ma village near the state capital Sittwe, told an AFP reporter at the scene.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There will be more deaths, as more than a hundred people are missing."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The village is inhabited by the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Bu Ma number was on top of a death toll of 24 given to AFP by a Rohingya village leader in nearby Khaung Doke Kar village.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That leader requested anonymity due to fear of reprisals from the country's junta.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The junta said on Monday that five people had been killed, without specifying exactly where they had died.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was not clear whether the junta's death toll included any of those killed in Bu Ma and Khaung Doke Kar.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">AFP has contacted a junta spokesman for comment on the new death toll.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Bu Ma on Tuesday morning, residents walked the seashore searching for family members swept away by a storm surge that accompanied the cyclone, AFP correspondents said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- 'No one has come to ask' -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Widely viewed as interlopers in Myanmar, the Rohingya are denied citizenship and healthcare and require permission to travel outside of their villages in western Rakhine state.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Many others live in camps after being displaced by decades of ethnic conflict in the state.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The United Nations refugee office said it was investigating reports that Rohingya living in displacement camps had been killed in the storm.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"UNHCR is saddened at hearing reports of deaths at displacement camps in Rakhine State in the aftermath of Cyclone Mocha," it said in a statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It added that it was "attempting to conduct detailed assessments at displacement camps and sites to get a clearer picture of the situation".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Tuesday, contact was slowly being restored with Sittwe, which is home to around 150,000 people, AFP reporters said, with roads being cleared and internet connections re-established.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Monday, state media footage showed troops unloading aid from planes at Sittwe airport.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Rohingya villagers told AFP that they were yet to receive any assistance.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"No government, no organisation has come to our village," said Kyaw Swar Win, 38, from Bu Ma village.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We haven't eaten for two days... We haven't got anything and all I can say is that no one has even come to ask." AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>