Bangladesh and Myanmar have warned hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate ahead of a severe cyclone that is set to hit the two countries on Sunday afternoon, potentially causing widespread destruction to one of the most vulnerable areas in the region.
Cyclone Mocha was packing winds of up to 175 kilometres per hour and meteorological officials in Dhaka classed it as “very severe”, with their Indian counterparts calling it “extremely severe”.
It is expected to make landfall on Sunday morning between Cox’s Bazar, where nearly one million Rohingya refugees live in camps largely made up of flimsy shelters, and Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state on Myanmar’s western coast.
“Cyclone Mocha is the most powerful storm since Cyclone Sidr,” Azizur Rahman, the head of Bangladesh’s Meteorological Department, told AFP.
That cyclone hit Bangladesh’s southern coast in November 2007, killing more than 3,000 people and causing billions of dollars in damage.
Bangladeshi authorities have banned the Rohingya from constructing permanent concrete homes, fearing it may give them an incentive to settle permanently rather than return to Myanmar, which they fled five years ago.
“We live in houses made of tarpaulin and bamboo,” said refugee Enam Ahmed, who lives at the Nayapara camp near the border town of Teknaf.
“We are scared. We don’t know where we will be sheltered. We are in a panic.”
The World Meteorological Organization, a UN agency, has warned of heavy rain, flooding and landslides potentially affecting “hundreds of thousands of the world’s most vulnerable people”, including the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and 6 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in neighbouring Rakhine state.
In Myanmar, the World Food Programme said it was preparing food and relief supplies that could help more than 400,000 people in Rakhine and surrounding areas for a month.
Some people in Sittwe were either leaving their homes to seek shelter on higher ground or moving further inland, a resident said.
“Everyone is trying to leave town since yesterday afternoon,” the 20-year-old said, asking not to be named, “Not many people remain in my street, just my family.” (Story continues below)
Extreme weather on the rise
Storms in the region are not unusual at this time of year, but Cyclone Mocha comes at a time of increased attention to extreme weather, after parts of Asia grappled with severe heat in April and May. With climate change and a looming shift in patterns toward El Nino conditions, heat waves and large storms could become more frequent or intense.
The ability of governments to respond to such threats is crucial.
Cyclone Nargis in May 2008 was the worst natural disaster in the history of Myanmar. More than 140,000 people were killed, and the lives of 2.4 million more were affected.
Myanmar’s civil war has intensified since the military took power in a coup in 2021. The fighting has displaced over a million people, especially the minority Rohingya, whom the UN has alleged are subject to “ethnic cleansing” by the military.
The ruling junta has issued an evacuation order to about one million people in seven townships in Rakhine State, although many more in other parts of the country are also likely to be affected.
The country’s meteorological office has raised its alert warning for the cyclone to red, the highest level, and advised those living in western coastal areas to evacuate as soon as possible. The junta has also banned fishing and entry to beaches and coastal areas across the whole nation.
In Bangladesh, about 500,000 people in coastal districts are being evacuated, with authorities warning that low-lying areas in some coastal districts and offshore islands are likely to be inundated with up to four metres of tidal surges above normal levels.
Bangladesh has also asked farmers to harvest rice crops immediately, and suspended a public exam for two million secondary school students scheduled for Sunday.
