By DPA,
Bonn (Germany) : A German aid organization estimated Wednesday that the death toll in Myanmar from Cyclone Nargis exceeded 50,000, based on its local knowledge and a visit by a reconnaissance team to the Irrawaddy delta disaster zone.
The aid organisation ADRA said in Bonn that that the badly hit Piensalu district had earlier been home to 150,000 people. An ADRA team had been involved in reconstruction in the same place after the Great Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004.
Marcel Wagner, ADRA director, said the team’s assessment was based on the fact that the damage from the cyclone was worse than that from the tsunami.
Myanmar’s military government has put the death toll at 22,500.