|PIC1|Around 3,000 people have been left homeless after heavy rains deluged Rakhine state, washing away crops and livestock.

Although Burma is in the midst of its monsoon season, the region has seen heavier rain falls than usual. The flood was brought on by 20 days of rain without a break.

“In the early morning, when I got up from my bed I saw the great flood. It was like nothing I had ever seen in my whole life,” one man told GFA.

Around half of the 1,100 homes in the town of Ann have been flooded and at least 200 completely destroyed.

A local river also burst its banks, causing the water to become polluted and full of debris and jeopardising the local food supply.

With the region still under water, the victims are as yet unable to return to their homes and many of the villages remain cut off from the outside world as a result of the floods.

GFA teams have set up an emergency shelter in a church building to house 60 people and distributed food and clean drinking water to about 200 people.

The missionaries are also conducting worship services for the displaced as well as offering prayer and counselling.

GFA appealed to Christians to pray for the health of the displaced people as well as those recovering injuries caused by the flooding.