It is the strongest cyclone in the last 10 years in the region. Mocha slammed into Bangladesh and Myanmar on Sunday (May 14th), uprooting trees, sweeping away tin houses in camps for displaced Rohingya and causing a major tidal wave in coastal areas.

Accompanied by strong winds of up to 195 kilometres per hour, Mocha was expected to follow a trajectory between Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, home to a million refugees, and Sittwe in Myanmar, according to the Bangladesh Meteorological Service.

In the coastal city of 150,000 people, images posted on social networks show streets turned into torrents as the cyclone passes, the strongest in more than 10 years in the Bay of Bengal.

"The water is gradually rising," said Wai Hun Aung, a social worker from Sittwe. "The tide clogged the sewer in front of our school... Soon, we will be going upstairs to set up our belongings."

At a camp for displaced Rohingya in Kyaukphyu, Rakhine State, the wind washed away rudimentary dwellings made of tarpaulins and bamboo.

"We will now monitor whether the sea water rises to our home... our camp can be flooded," said Khin Shwe, the head of a camp for displaced people.

A "major emergency" according to the Red Cross

In Teknaf, Bangladesh, strong winds uprooted trees, halted traffic and forced residents to take shelter, an AFP correspondent said.

"The houses in our camp, built of bamboo and tarpaulins, can be washed away even by light winds," said Mohammad Sayed, 28, from Nayapara refugee camp in Cox's Bazar. "Schools, designated as cyclone shelters, are not strong enough to withstand the winds of a cyclone. We are afraid."

On Saturday, thousands of Sittwe residents fled with their belongings and pets in cars and tuk-tuks to higher ground, with Mocha expected to cause a tidal wave of about 3.5 meters.

"We're not doing well. We didn't bring food, we don't have anything to cook," said Maung Win, 57, who spent the night in Kyauktaw, inland. "We have to rely on people to give us food."

The Burmese Red Cross said in a statement that it was "preparing to respond to a major emergency."

Nearly 300,000 Bengalis evacuated

In Bangladesh, 190,000 people have been evacuated from Cox's Bazar and nearly 100,000 from the nearby city of Chittagong, according to authorities. "They were taken to nearly 4,000 cyclone shelters," divisional commissioner Aminur Rahman told AFP.

Rohingya refugees have been taken from "risk areas" to community centres, while thousands have fled the tourist island of St. Maarten on the path of Mocha.

"Cyclone Mocha is the strongest storm since Cyclone Sidr," said Azizur Rahman, director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Service.

By November 2007, Sidr had ravaged southwestern Bangladesh, killing more than 3,000 people and damaging billions of dollars.

Bangladeshi authorities have banned the Rohingya from building permanent concrete homes, fearing it would encourage them to settle permanently rather than return to Myanmar, which they fled in 2017.

The double punishment of the Rohingya

Forecasters expect the cyclone to bring a deluge of rain that could cause landslides. Most camps are built on hillsides and landslides are common in the area.

Authorities said thousands of volunteers were evacuating the Rohingya from "risk areas" to stronger structures such as schools.

But "all Rohingya in the camps are at risk," warned Bangladesh's deputy commissioner for refugees, Shamsud Douza.

Cyclones, sometimes referred to as Atlantic hurricanes and Pacific typhoons, are a regular threat to the northern Indian Ocean coast, home to tens of millions of people.

In May 2008, Nargis left at least 138,000 people dead or missing in Burma, the worst natural disaster in the country's history.

The increasing intensity of cyclones in recent years in several regions of the world is partly attributed to climate change.

With AFP

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