At least 800,000 people in Myanmar need emergency food aid and other assistance after Cyclone Mocha slammed into the conflict-torn country earlier this week, the United Nations said Friday.

"The cyclone left a trail of devastation across Myanmar's Rakhine State, with houses flattened, roads cut off by uprooted trees, hospitals and schools destroyed, and telecommunications and power lines severely disrupted," Anthea Webb, the UN World Food Programme's deputy regional director for Asia and the Pacific, told reporters in Geneva.

"There are at least 800,000 people in urgent need of emergency food assistance."