Cyclone Mocha, with winds of up to 210 km/h, could bring waves of up to 4 m, affecting more than 2 million people, mostly in Myanmar’s Rakhine and Chin states.
But many more people could be affected as the storm moves inland into the Bay of Bengal, the United Nations Satellite Center warned.
“Saving lives is our top priority,” said Mijanur Rahman, the relief official in Bangladesh, which evacuated about 300,000 people before the storm made landfall.
Aid workers are worried about the risk to the more than one million refugees, including half a million children, living in camps in the resort town of Cox’s Bazar, which is close to the cyclone’s path.
“People at risk are being transferred to safe shelters and we are also organizing aid packages,” said Farah Kabir of ActionAid Bangladesh.
Most of the refugees live in makeshift housing in cramped camps after fleeing a military-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.
At least 100,000 people in Myanmar’s Rakhine state have moved to safer areas since last week, militia representatives and the UN humanitarian office said.
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