Hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh and Myanmar have been ordered to evacuate as a cyclone bears 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 on Thursday or Friday somewhere near the border between the two countries.
Bangladesh told hundreds of thousands of people living in low-lying areas to move to cyclone shelters, while Myanmar announced plans to relocate roughly 166,000 people on its northwest coast to safety.
But 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.
“We could die here. We have no place to go,” said Yu Sut Taw, a Muslim man living in a camp
Article source: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2013-05-15/cyclone-mahasen-weakens-but-still-lifethreatening/1131330