CYCLONE AFFECTED AREAS FACING STARTVATION
About four million people in south-central Bangladesh, ravaged by a cyclone and tidal wave in November 1970, were facing starvation because the war had halted emergency food distribution, reported the Washington Post.
The officials who said they maintain contact with leaders of the Bangladesh liberation movement said the area hit by the cyclone had gone mostly untouched by the fighting. The area consists of the Ganges River Delta districts of Patuakhali and Barisal and some remote offshore islands in the Bay of Bengal.
The Bangalee officials said 60,000 tonnes of food had been sent to the area before March 26, but another 160,000 tonnes were never sent because the war shut down the ports in Bangladesh and the access roads to the area.