Cyclone Mocha heads to Bangladesh, Myanmar coasts threatening refugee

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.
Bangladesh Meteorological Department said in a bulletin, 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.
Cox’s Bazar, a southeastern border district, is where more than a million Rohingya refugees live, most having fled a military-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.
The U.N. humanitarian office said, 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.
Since a junta seized power two years ago, Myanmar has been plunged into chaos and a resistance movement is fighting the military on multiple fronts after a bloody crackdown on protests.