The passage of Tropical Cyclone Mocha across western and northern Myanmar and southeastern Bangladesh on Sunday and Monday has caused widespread damage, leaving at least 500 people dead and hundreds injured, according to initial reports. While some 100,000 people were evacuated, 5.4 million people in Myanmar were in the cyclone's path, with estimates suggesting nearly 3.2 million of the country's most vulnerable are in need of humanitarian assistance.
Cyclone Mocha, the most powerful storm to hit the Bay of Bengal in the past 10 years, made three landfalls with brutal force on Sunday, uprooting trees, ripping off roofs and breaking down power lines as winds of 250 kilometers per hours swept through the region. Humanitarian organizations are working to understand the full extent of the damage.
âWe are yet to get a full picture of the damage elsewhere in the cycloneâs path but we fear for the worst of course, given that the majority of shelters in this very impoverished part of the country are mostly made of bamboo and they stood little chance in the face of these windsâ, said Ramanathan Balakrishnan, the acting UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar, on Tuesday.
Mocha made first landfall about 30 km west-northwest of Sittwe in Myanmar and 150 km south-southeast of Coxâs Bazar in Bangladesh. Worst affected were Rakhine, Chin, Magway, Sagaing and Kachin states in Myanmar and Chattogram Division in south-eastern Bangladesh. In Chin, over 1,200 houses were partially or fully destroyed. Severe flooding has affected more than 100,000 people in villages in Magway and Sagaing.
The first area to be hit was Rakhine State, where some 600,000 Rohingya Muslims live, nearly 150,000 of them in camps for internally displaced people (IDPs). Landfalls followed in Chin State and Northern Sagaing region.
The storm has devasted the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in Rakhine and northwest Myanmar (Chin, Sagaing and Magway), two of the poorest parts of the country, worsening an already dire situation. Civil unrest and armed violence in affected states of Myanmar have increased since a military junta mounted a coup against the democratically elected government on February 1, 2021.
In Bangladesh, nearly 430,000 Bangladeshi were affected, over 2,000 houses destroyed and more than 10,600 houses damaged. Rohingya refugees camps in the Cox's Bazar area were also severely hit, but the major impact of the cyclone has been in Myanmar.
In flooded areas where safe drinking water and sanitation is lacking, people are at risk of waterborne diseases, such as diarrhea, hepatitis, and those caused by mosquitoes such as malaria and dengue.
âMore broadly, health, relief items, shelter, and water, sanitation and hygiene support are already emerging as early priorities with a high risk of waterborne and communicable diseases as evacuees are living in huge numbers in small spaces,â Balakrishnan said.
United Nations and international aid agencies are racing to provide lifesaving aid to survivors of Cyclone Mocha. The immediate priorities include shelter, clean water, food assistance and healthcare services.
âDespite many of their own homes being badly destroyed, our humanitarian teams are standing by to begin assessments and we hope that they will get the access they need to start the assessments as soon as possibleâ, the humanitarian coordinator added.
The World Food Programm (WFP) said today at least 800,000 people in the direct path of the cyclone will need emergency food assistance in Myanmar.
The UN fear the needs for humanitarian support will be extremely high. At the same time, the $763 million humanitarian response plan for Myanmar is only 10% funded.
âOur Humanitarian Response Plan is less than 10 percent funded as it stands now, and we simply will not be able to respond to these additional needs from the cyclone and continue our existing response across the country without more financial support from donorsâ, Balakrishnan said.
In a related development, the World Food Programme warned today that three months since funding shortages forced WFP to reduce food assistance for the Rohingya population in Coxâs Bazar, further cuts are likely unless the UN organization receives immediate funding.
960,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are receiving assistance in Bangladesh. In March, WFP had to reduce its life-saving food vouchers from US$ 12 to US$ 10 per person per month. With the funding gap persisting, starting June 1 the UN agency will decrease the voucher value for a second time â from US$ 10 to US$ 8.
Six years into the refugee crisis, the Rohingya rely completely on humanitarian assistance to survive. They are not permitted to earn a living or leave the camps in Bangladesh. WFPâs general food assistance has been the only source they could count on to meet their essential food and nutrition needs.
The situation in the refugee camps is already dire. According to the UN agency, even before the ration cut in March, 12 percent of children were acutely malnourished and 41 percent of children were chronically malnourished. Any further ration cut will likely lead to a precipitous spike in acute malnutrition.
Myanmar faces multiple overlapping humanitarian needs caused by genocide, persecution, protracted armed conflicts, intercommunal violence and natural disasters. Humanitarian needs in Myanmar have continued to grow due to ongoing armed violence and political unrest since the military coup in February 2021.
Myanmar is also one of the most vulnerable countries in South East Asia to natural disasters, facing numerous hazards such as floods, cyclones, and earthquakes.
Fighting across Myanmar continues to endanger the lives, safety, and health of civilians. Heavy armed clashes, including airstrikes, artillery fire and ambushes are reported predominantly in the northwest and southeast of the country, as well as in Rakhine and southern Chin state. Over 55,000 civilian structures, including homes, clinics, schools and places of worship, have been reportedly burned or destroyed over the past two years.
As of May 2023, there were an estimated 1.8 million internally displaced people (IDP) across Myanmar, including some 1.5 million people who have been displaced within the country since the military takeover on February 1, 2021. 330,000 people are internally displaced due to conflict prior to February 2021, mainly in Rakhine, Kachin, Chin, and Shan state.
The United Nations estimated that before the cyclone hit 17.6 million people in Myanmar were in need of humanitarian assistance.
Nearly one million Rohingya refugees are currently living at the Kutupalong and Nayapara refugee camps in Bangladeshâs Coxâs Bazar region. For decades, the Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority, have faced institutionalized discrimination in Myanmar, such as exclusion from citizenship. In August 2017, the Myanmar government launched a military campaign that forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee their homes in Myanmarâs Rakhine State to Bangladesh.