Powerful circling Mocha, blowing at speeds up to 175 kilometers per hour, is moving towards the east coast of Bangladesh and the western part of Myanmar. threatens an estimated one million Rohingya refugees.

The Bangladesh Meteorological Service has warned that after forming in the Bay of Bengal a few days ago, Cyclone Mocha is expected to further intensify and hit the Cox’s Bazar region of Bangladesh and Myanmar tomorrow Sunday.

In Cox’s Bazar, about a million Rohingya Muslim refugees, most of whom fled Myanmar in 2017 to escape military persecution, live in makeshift camps in appalling conditions.

A spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has intervened and is preparing “for an emergency” in the camps, with authorities saying they are “ready” to clear roads with heavy machinery, the spokesman said.

Mocha has been recognized as a very severe cyclonic storm. Myanmar’s Rakhine state is also expected to be affected, as is the northwest of the country, where six million people are in need of humanitarian assistance and 1.2 million have been displaced.noted by the UN.

The agency’s Office of Humanitarian Affairs has warned that strong winds and heavy rains could cause flooding and landslides in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

“We are focused on saving lives,” said Mohammad Samsud Duza, the Bangladeshi government official in charge of refugees. “Those at risk of landslides will be relocated.” He added that thousands of local government workers and volunteers have already been sent to the area, and doctors and rescuers are on standby.

In Myanmar, the World Food Program (WFP) said it was preparing aid for more than 400,000 people in Rakhine State and surrounding areas.

Source: APE-MPE, AFP, Reuters.