Millions still waiting for aid in Bangladesh

Aid agencies in Bangladesh said Sunday they still had not reached many victims of the cyclone that killed thousands and left millions homeless and in desperate need of food, water and medicine.
"Our estimate is that 900,000 families are affected, with most deaths caused by people being washed away by the surge," said Shafiquzzaman Rabbani of the International Red Cross.
Villagers in southern Bangladesh have spoken of a six-metre (20-foot) high wave that engulfed vulnerable low-lying areas as Cyclone Sidr tore in from the Bay of Bengal on Thursday night, flattening village after village. The relief effort, however, was being hampered by the many trees still blocking roads and by the sheer scale of the devastation.
"In the remote areas it is slow going, they are almost chopping trees as they go along," said Douglas Casson Coutts of the World Food Programme. He said the WFP had distributed 200 metric tonnes of high energy biscuits to around 400,000 people, and that more convoys were leaving Dhaka. WFP officials were also working with the military to organise air drops to three hard-to-reach coastal districts.
Many victims told an AFP correspondent who managed to reach the worst-hit areas they had not yet received any aid at all, let alone even seen or heard a plane or helicopter.
The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society said its network of volunteers were helping to distribute immediately available supplies of dried food and plastic sheets for temporary shelters. But the organisation said many helpers were victims themselves. Assessment teams were en route to the worst affected areas and would draw up plans over the coming days for a major relief effort, Rabbani said- meaning countless victims will still have to hold out in the open and with no food for water for days more.
Bangladesh's military-backed government said army helicopters were dropping supplies from the air and that five navy ships were distributing food, medicine and relief materials along the coastline.
The government was holding talks with the representatives of 42 aid agencies on how to co-ordinate relief efforts, said Mohammad Ayub Mia, secretary of the relief and disaster management ministry. Germany, Britain, the United States and the European Commission have made offers of immediate relief aid.
Britain said it would make five million dollars available for aid to be channelled through the United Nations. The European Commission said it was sending 1.5 million euros (2.2 million dollars) in emergency relief aid to the country.