By Hannah Park
Cyclone Mocha, a Category 4 Tropical Cyclone, made landfall in Myanmar and Bangladesh on May 14, 2023. Over 400 people have been killed in the subsequent flooding, storm surges and landslides caused by this natural disaster.
Rated a Category 4 on the 5-point Saffir-Simpson scale due to its maximum sustained wind speed of 250 km/hr (155 mph), Cyclone Mocha destroyed homes, displaced thousands of people and disrupted communications throughout the region. It was the strongest cyclone to hit the Bay of Bengal in the last 10 years.
Cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons are all names for the same phenomenon, but each name is used in a different region in the world. Storms originating in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean are called cyclones. This storm’s name, Mocha, was proposed by Yemen, after a Red Sea port known for its production of coffee: in the North Indian Ocean region, storms have gender-neutral names which are suggested by 13 countries. But, names aside, Cyclone Mocha was a horrific natural disaster.
The flash flooding, storm surges and landslides caused unimaginable suffering for those trapped in the storm’s path. Abdul Hussein, a resident of Rakhine, Myanmar, was overwhelmed with grief after being separated from his wife and three of his daughters, who were later found dead. His home was also destroyed.
“I’m thinking only about them, I can’t even eat, I can’t even do anything,” Hussein told CNN.
Cyclone Mocha targeted a particularly vulnerable region: the coast of Bangladesh is home to 1 million Rohingya refugees, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority group that had fled persecution from Buddhist Myanmar. Many of the makeshift shelters were destroyed, leaving thousands displaced.
In Myanmar, the states along its coast were severely damaged. Rakhine, the country’s westernmost state and lying on the coast of the Bay of Bengal, experienced severe flooding in its low-lying areas. Its capital city, Sittwe, was almost completely destroyed. Overall, a total of 3.2 million people may require humanitarian aid due to Cyclone Mocha.
Relief organizations and local volunteer groups were poised to take action before and after the storm. 1,500 shelters were set up in advance, and officials worked to evacuate residents and close airports before the storm hit. However, the violent political conflict in Myanmar hampered the distribution of aid and supplies.
After the military junta that took over Myanmar in February 2021, armed resistance groups have been battling the military in almost-daily conflict. Residents who were fleeing the storm often had to worry about being caught in gunfire. Moreover, the military government blocked the distribution of humanitarian aid to some of the hardest-hit regions for almost a week after Cyclone Mocha.
“[With] a natural disaster [in areas affected by] armed conflict… international communities are struggling to do their work effectively,” one Rakhine humanitarian worker said to Al-Jazeera. “We are in hell.”
With global temperatures rising as a result of climate change, Eastern and Southeastern Asia have experienced an upward tick in cyclones. They tend to last longer and travel further inland than they did in the past. Although modern technology can help countries prepare for disasters in advance, storms like Cyclone Mocha will still wreak havoc on communities and displace millions of people.
Despite these challenges, many relief organizations are currently on the ground in Myanmar and Bangladesh. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), also known as the UN Refugee Agency, has teams working to protect refugees and provide shelter and access to clean water. A donation can help provide hygiene kits, solar lamps or cash assistance to those in most need of emergency aid. You can also fund efforts by Global Giving and Save the Children.
