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Showing posts from May, 2013

Weakening Cyclone Mahasen heads to Bangladesh

Hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh and Myanmar have been evacuated as a cyclone bore down on coastal areas home to flood-prone refugee camps for victims of sectarian unrest. The United Nations has warned that more than eight million people could be at risk from Cyclone Mahasen, which is expected to make landfall in Bangladesh on Thursday. Bangladesh evacuated more than 700,000 people living in low-lying areas to thousands of cyclone shelters on Wednesday, while Myanmar announced plans to relocate roughly 166,000 people on its northwest coast. However, in Myanmar's state of Rakhine, many Muslim Rohingya made homeless by communal bloodshed last year said they were too scared to move, reflecting their deep mistrust of the authorities and of local Buddhists. The UN office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said earlier that the cyclone appeared to have weakened. Downgraded It said in a written statement that Cyclone Mahasen had been

Bangladesh, Myanmar brace for Cyclone Mahasen

BANGKOK, 13 May 2013 (IRIN) - Bangladesh and Myanmar are bracing for Cyclone Mahasen, a storm which could affect millions in the region, the UN has warned. “We are fully prepared and coordination systems are in place,” Mohammad Abdul Wazed, additional secretary of the Bangladesh Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, told IRIN on 13 May from Dhaka, noting that local disaster management committees at district and sub-district level had already been activated. “Starting yesterday, we have been broadcasting storm warnings every 30 minutes,” said Myanmar's presidential spokesman Ye Htut. “As a precautionary effort, some people in low-lying areas of Rakhine State have already relocated.” According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), a red storm alert remains in effect for Mahasen, also known as tropical Cyclone O1B, just east-northeast of Sri Lanka, now moving northwards across the Bay of Bengal towards both countries. Set to re