A powerful storm packing winds of up to 175 kph (109 miles) barrelled towards the coasts of eastern Bangladesh and Myanmar on Saturday, threatening around a million Rohingya refugees and others living in low-lying areas.
After brewing in the Bay of Bengal for days, Cyclone Mocha is likely to intensify further and make landfall between Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh and Myanmar on Sunday, Bangladesh Meteorological Department said in a bulletin.
Mocha - categorised as a very severe cyclonic storm - is expected to cut a path through Myanmar's Rakhine and northwestern region, where six million people need humanitarian assistance and 1.2 million are displaced, the U.N. humanitarian office said. Thousands of trained community workers and volunteers had already been deployed, alongside medical and rescue personnel who are on stand-by, he said.
Some people in Rakhine's capital Sittwe were either leaving their homes to seek shelter on higher ground or moving further inland, a resident said.
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