A powerful cyclone is threatening Myanmar and Bangladesh, even as 60 people remained unaccounted for after a boat carrying about 100 people fleeing the approaching cyclone sank off western Myanmar.
Myanmar's Meteorology Department said on Wednesday that Cyclone Mahasen was heading northeast in the Bay of Bengal and was expected to make a landfall on the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh late on Thursday or early Friday.
The Myanmar government has set up an anti-disaster task force headed by the Vice-President and is urging people to evacuate coastal areas, local media reported.
An overcrowded boat carrying about 100 Rohingya Muslims sank in the sea off western Myanmar while fleeing the approaching cyclone. The state-run TV reported on Tuesday night that about 60 people were still unaccounted for.
More than 100,000 refugees, mostly stateless Rohingya Muslims, live in camps in low-lying areas along Myanmar's western coast after they fled ethnic violence between majority Buddhists and the Muslim minority in the Rakhine state.
The U.N. agency for humanitarian affairs has urged the Myanmarese government to move the refugees to higher ground.
Myanmar's southern delta was devastated by Cyclone Nargis in 2008, leaving more than 130,000 people dead or unaccounted for.
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