Cyclone Mocha: Deadly storm hits Myanmar and Bangladesh coasts - at least 130 dead (UPDATE)

Rajini Vaidyanathan
BBC
Mon, 15 May 2023 10:25 UTC

Three dead as Cyclone Mocha makes landfall in Myanmar

A powerful cyclone has hit the coastlines of Bangladesh and Myanmar after intensifying into the equivalent of a category-five storm.

Cyclone Mocha did not make landfall at the sprawling refugee camp in Cox's Bazar as earlier feared, but still tore apart hundreds of makeshift shelters.

At least six people have been reported dead in Myanmar.

Up to 90 per cent of the western Rakhine state's capital city Sittwe has been destroyed, residents told the BBC.

The Burmese military has declared the whole of Rakhine as a natural disaster area.

By late Sunday, the storm had largely passed. Bangladesh's disaster official Kamrul Hasan said the cyclone caused "no major damage", but landslides and floods are still hitting the country. No casualties have been reported in Bangladesh so far.

Myanmar appears to have borne more direct impact, with the storm crashing through houses and cutting power lines in Rakhine state. Myanmar's meteorological department said it pounded through the country at about 209km/h (130 mph).

Camps for displaced Rohingya in the state have also been ripped apart.

Local media reported that a 14-year-old boy were among those reported dead - he was killed by a falling tree in the state.

Electricity and wireless connections were disrupted across much of Sittwe. Footage online showed roofs being blown off houses, telecom towers brought down, and billboards flying off buildings amid teeming rain across the region.

Authorities have declared Rakhine state a natural disaster area, while the Myanmar Red Cross Society said it was "preparing for a major emergency response".

Authorities in Bangladesh had evacuated 750,000 people ahead of the storm.

The streets of Cox's Bazar emptied as the cyclone intensified - the skies darkened, the winds picked up pace and the rains pounded down.

Hundreds of people crammed into a school which had been turned into a temporary cyclone shelter.

Mothers with babies, young children, the elderly and the frail packed into any available space in the classrooms, sleeping on desks and sitting under them.

As many arrived at the shelter in rickshaws and on foot, they brought their livestock - cattle, chickens, goats - as well as mats to sleep on.

They had come from fishing and coastal villages up to two hours away, making a difficult choice.

"I didn't want to leave my house," said Sumi Akter, who lives on a riverbank.

Sumi and others we met here say they have lived through other cyclones in recent years and are resigned to the regular pattern of leaving their homes to the mercy of nature.

Storm surges of up to four metres could swamp villages in low-lying areas. Sumi and others here are fearful their homes may be submerged.

Comment: Update May 17

Laprensalatina.com reports:

At least 130 dead in Myanmar due to Cyclone Mocha

Cyclone Mocha, which made landfall in western Myanmar during the weekend, has left at least 130 dead in camps for displaced Rohingya people near Sittwe, in the western state of Rakhine.

"I haven't experienced such a situation in my life. It is as if the city has been bombed. The roofs of the houses are no longer there. There is nothing left," Sittwe U Aung Aung, secretary of the Rakhine State Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told EFE on Wednesday.

The official, in his mid-fifties, said he had not been able to leave his home, while "the army and police clean the roads," and reiterated that "there is a lot of damage, although aid programs have not yet arrived. We have to fix the house ourselves."

According to nonprofits and UN agencies, Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State and home to some 150,000 people, is the city most affected by Mocha.

However, the majority of the dead are expected to be concentrated in the displacement camps around the city, where more than 100,000 members of the Rohingya muslim minority reside.

Although three days have passed since its impact, the exact number of victims and the situation on the ground remains uncertain.

Sources from the Alin Yaung volunteer group, who are working in the area, told EFE that at least 130 Rohingyas from 11 displaced camps have died due to the cyclone, with the numbers expected to increase further as hundreds remain missing.

The nonprofit Partners Relief & Development, which operates in the area, tweeted that the Rohingya fields have been "decimated" by the storm and that roads remain blocked and electricity cut off.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) an estimated 5.4 million people were in the area impacted by the cyclone.

The violent storm that made landfall on Sunday destroyed telecommunications and access to the affected area in Rakhine, home to hundreds of thousands of members of the Rohingya Muslim minority, who are persecuted by the army and not recognized as citizens in Myanmar.

Ko Thar Shay, secretary of the Sittwe-based Metta Raya Foundation, told EFE that the distrust of the military may have led many Rohingyas to decide against evacuation before the cyclone hit.

Mocha made landfall on Sunday between the southern coast of Bangladesh and the western part of neighboring Myanmar, with sustained winds of more than 150 kilometers per hour, marking the largest storm to hit the Bay of Bengal in more than a decade.