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PADMA, Bangladesh : Urgently-needed supplies of food, water and medicine were Tuesday nearing people in remote areas of Bangladesh where a devastating cyclone has left millions homeless and thousands dead.
With roads now cleared of hundreds of trees that had blocked aid convoys, officials said relief was finally starting to get through to the most inaccessible areas five days after the colossal storm hit.
Bangladeshis are famed for managing to endure frequent floods and storms that hit the impoverished and low-lying country - but aid workers said this time the situation was desperate.
"The scale of this disaster is enormous," says Heather Blackwell, the Bangladesh head of the British aid group Oxfam.
"People here are resilient. However, the scale is such that it will take months for people to be able to return to their normal lives," she said, adding it "could take weeks before we know exactly how bad this cyclone was."
The confirmed death toll stood at 3,447 but officials feared it could climb significantly after all the victims in isolated areas were accounted for.
The head of the Bangladeshi Red Crescent has said he believed up to 5,000 to 10,000 people had died.
Villagers in some of the country's most remote areas along the coast - one of the poorest places on the planet - have seen their homes and livelihoods washed away by a huge tidal wave, and are without food or clean water.
The United Nation's Children's Fund said nearly half of those affected by the disaster were children, an estimated 400,000 of them under the age of five years.
"Many have drowned or been injured by falling trees," UNICEF said.
World Food Programme country representative Douglas Casson Coutts said the extent of the devastation - villages flattened and crops and livestock washed away - would make it difficult for people to rebuild their lives.
"There is significant damage to the infrastructure. There will definitely have to be longer term assistance to get people on their feet again," he said.
In the southern fishing town of Padma, the wooden trawlers that the population relies on to make a living were smashed to bits.
"In about 30 minutes we all became paupers," said Abdul Jalil, a fisherman, who lost his mother, son, a nephew and two fishing trawlers in one of worst cyclones in the country's history.
Distraught villagers in the area told AFP they had not yet received any assistance - although officials said help was on its way and that the aid effort had now accelerated as earlier transport and communication problems eased.
"The access is getting better every day," said Coutts. "We have had to use boats to deliver food but it was possible to do it."
He said he expected everyone in need would be reached this week.
Officials said the armed forces were continuing to work side-by-side with aid agencies to deliver relief by air, road and sea to remote places.
Offers of international aid have poured in.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has pledged 100 million dollars in aid for its fellow Muslim nation, and US ships were powering to the disaster zone with dozens of helicopters to help coordinate relief efforts.
The Jeddah-based Organisation of the Islamic Conference has called on governments and civil bodies in its 57 member states to send urgent assistance to the impoverished Muslim country.
The British government confirmed aid worth 2.5 million pounds (3.5 million euros, 5.1 million dollars), to be channelled through the United Nations and used to provide food, water, housing repairs and medical treatment.
In Brussels, the European Commission pledged a further five million euros (7.3 million dollars) on top of an initial 1.5 million euros released Friday. - AFP/ir/ms
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