With coastal winds recorded at up to 250 kilometers per hour making landfall off the Bay of Bengal, the storm tore through villages in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, leaving villagers to piece together their ruined homes while they wait for aid and support.

According to news reports, Mocha ripped off roofs, smashed fishing boats, uprooted trees and brought down power lines and telecommunications, terrifying the population, said the UN aid coordination office, OCHA.

Millions face hardship

“(Some) 5.4 million people are expected to have been in the path of the cyclone, said Ramanathan Balakrishnan, UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Myanmar. “Of these, we consider 3.1 million people to be most vulnerable to cyclone impacts by taking together indicators of shelter quality, food insecurity and poor coping capacity.

“It really is a nightmare scenario for this cyclone to hit areas with such deep pre-existing needs.”

Torrential rains and devastating floods have also increased the risk of landslides ahead of the monsoon season, the OCHA official warned.

Concerns are high because the affected areas are home to hundreds of thousands people displaced by the protracted conflict in Myanmar – many of them the mostly-Muslim Rohingya of Rakhine – exacerbated by a military coup in February 2021.

Disease threat

The “many thousands” who took refuge in evacuation centres, now face a massive cleanup and huge reconstruction effort ahead.

Both the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and UN World Health Organization (WHO) said that relief items, shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene support are urgently needed to tackle the high risk of waterborne diseases.

Health supplies have already been mobilized to treat 200,000 people, along with water purification tablets, WHO’s Dr. Edwin Salvador, Regional Emergency Director at the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia, told journalists in Geneva.

“As in any flood areas where access to safe drinking water and sanitation is a challenge, there is still a risk of waterborne diseases such as diarrhea, hepatitis and those caused by mosquitoes such as dengue and malaria.”

Funding boost urgently required

Highlighting the urgency of the situation, OCHA appealed for international support, without delay. “We need a huge infusion of funds to respond to the massive needs,” said Mr. Balakrishnan. “Our Humanitarian Response Plan is less than 10 per cent funded as it stands now, and we simply will not be able to respond to the additional needs from Mocha.”

That appeal was echoed by the UNHCR in Bangladesh, where the 2023 funding ask for the Rohingya Refugee Response remains only 16 per cent funded.

Bangladesh camps severely hit

As a result, food assistance for refugees had to be cut by 17 per cent earlier this year, said UNHCR spokesperson Olga Sarrado. Although the impact of the cyclone could have been much worse in Bangladesh, refugee camps there have been severely affected.

Cyclones are a regular and deadly menace on the coast of the northern Indian Ocean. Rising global temperatures contribute to their intensity.

“We are yet to get a full picture of the damage elsewhere in the cyclone’s path, of course, but we fear for the worst given that the majority of the shelters in this very impoverished part of the country are mostly made of bamboo, and they stood still little chance in the face of these winds,” said the UN’s Mr. Balakrishnan.

The Humanitarian Coordinator added that a community leader from one of the camps for internally displaced people in Rakhine’s shattered capital, Sittwe, reported that the storm had left a major trail of destruction and washed away shelters and latrines, leaving thousands lacking even the basics of survival.

“They said the immediate needs are shelter, clean water and sanitation” the UN official added.

OCHA said that communities there had spent the day cleaning up, and counting the cost of the storm, categorized as Extremely Severe, when it smashed into Myanmar’s western states and regions on Sunday, with guests as strong as 250km per hour – continuing to lash some areas the day after, with heavy rain.

Authorities and humanitarian aid agencies had launched a massive evacuation plan before the storm crashed ashore north of Sittwe.

Six million already in need

Humanitarian needs in Rakhine state and northwest Myanmar were already dire before the cyclone hit, with approximately six million people already in need of relief aid, according to OCHA, as a result of years of conflict and displacement.

Today, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya are living in temporary shelters where their movements are restricted by the military regime, which declared the whole of Rakhine a disaster area in the wake of Mocha.

First reports indicated that the worst of the cyclone spared the major Rohingya refugee camp complex of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, which is home to nearly one million mostly Rohingya refugees, the majority of whom fled persecution and violence in Rakhine, beginning in the summer of 2017.

Much of Sittwe destroyed

But news reports indicated that although not as dire as predicted, there were still several killed in Myanmar, and hundreds of thousands of Rohingya left homeless.

OCHA said there was widespread destruction across Sittwe, with few houses left standing. Many of the flimsy bamboo longhouses in displacement camps were wrecked.

“Communications with teams on the ground are still limited but early reports suggest the damage is significant, particularly in Rakhine, and that needs across all communities will be high”, said the OCHA situation report on Monday.

“Extremely strong winds brought down power lines, uprooted trees, and damaged and destroyed houses. Storm surge knocked out bridges and inundated homes.”

Health, relief items, shelter, and water, sanitation, and hygiene needs are already being reported, with the added deadly threat of landmines in the conflict-affected rural areas, having shifted during flooding.

Cell towers damaged

Communications with partners on the ground was partially restored during the day but still remains limited after extensive damage to telecommunications towers, OCHA continued.

Water and power services have been badly interrupted all day with generators now the primary source of electricity for most people due to downed lines.

Humanitarian partners are working to start rapid needs assessments in the field on Tuesday, to confirm the magnitude of impact from the cyclone and the immediate assistance that is required.

Early reports have also started coming in of widespread flooding and needs in the northwest – an area that is also heavily conflict-affected.

© UNICEF/Sultan Mahmud Mukut

A Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar prepares for Cyclone Mocha.

Funding desperately needed

OCHA said an urgent injection of funds to assist recovery was “desperately needed to facilitate a full-scale response to the impact of the cyclone and subsequent flooding.” To date, the $764M Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) is only 10 per cent funded.

Some IDPs are still staying in cyclone shelters near displacement camps, with some reports of injuries and needs for medical treatment. Those staying in temporary shelters, such as schools, require assistance.

Movement is challenging and debris clearance is ongoing. Heavy traffic was reported during the day due to large numbers of people returning to their Sittwe homes from inland areas, combined with debris on the roads.

Rohingya shelters damaged

News reports suggest that around 3,000 Rohingya shelters were damaged during the passage of Mocha, with some completely destroyed. The country’s refugee commissioner’s reported damage to 32 learning centres, and 29 mosques.

In the refugee camps where there were 120 landslides reported, at least 5,300 refugees were reportedly relocated to more secure locations, while the Bangladeshi Government said around 250,000 were in need of food and shelter across the region overall by Sunday night.

Authorities in Bangladesh had evacuated some 750,000 people ahead of the storm.

Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said that it was “imperative that we explore all options to reach civilians”, stressing that all parties to the fighting must allow and facilitate the “rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief”.

“I urge the parties to strengthen facilitation efforts so we can reach all civilians in need”, he said.

Cut off from food, water, care

He noted that many communities along Ukraine’s northeastern border with Russia and the frontline of fighting, were encircled, without access to water, food and medical care.

“Only last week in Kherson, residential buildings, a school, an outpatient hospital, and an elderly care facility were reportedly damaged, leaving scores of civilians needing shelter and healthcare. And missile strikes in Odesa hit a humanitarian storage warehouse. A Ukrainian Red Cross mobile hospital in Mykolaiv was also hit. Humanitarian supplies and vital medical equipment were destroyed.”

He said no staff or volunteers were injured but the threats persist. Civilians must not be target, he insisted, or the homes, schools, hospitals and buildings, where they live and work.

He stressed again, the need for a political solution, and importance of peace for Ukraine, with civilian casualties during Russia’s continued occupation of parts of the south and east, “rising to their highest levels in months.”

Over 20,000 dead or injured

The UN human rights office, OHCHR, “has now verified a staggering 23,600 civilian casualties since 24 February 2022; we all know the actual toll is likely to be much higher”, said Mr. Griffiths.

Despite the constant dangers, the “sheer bravery of humanitarian workers, particularly local workers”, for the UN and other NGOs, means life-saving assistance continues to be delivered nationwide.

He said nearly 3.6 million people received humanitarian assistance in Ukraine in the first quarter of 2023 with around 43 inter-agency convoys delivering food and vital supplies to some 278,000 people in frontline areas so far this year, “with local partners conducting last-mile delivery and distribution.”

But he said more is needed “to take our efforts to scale. The biggest challenge remains the impediments to reaching all areas in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia currently under the military control of the Russian Federation.”

Full access to these areas “continue to be explored through engagement with both parties.”

‘Recommitment’ to Black Sea Initiative

Food exported under the Black Sea Initiative, together with food and fertilizer exports from Russia, continue to make a crucial contribution to global food security, he told ambassadors.

More than 30 million metric tons of cargo have now been safely exported from Ukrainian ports, of which over 55 per cent has gone to developing countries and close to six per cent, directly to Least Developed Countries.

This includes just under 600,000 metric tons of wheat transported by the World Food Programme (WFP), in direct support of humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Yemen.

Despite the progress and falling food prices since last summer’s highs, “much more remains to be done”.

“Predictable supplies for humanitarian food assistance operations continue to be required. The Initiative refers to the export of ammonia, but this has not yet been possible.

Over the past month, there’s been a major reduction in exports moving through Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, due to what the UN relief chief called “increasingly challenging dynamics” within the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC), run by Russia, Ukraine, the UN and Türkiye, “and a related slowdown in operations.”

He assured that intensive talks “to secure agreement on its extension and the improvements needed for it to operate effectively and predictably”, would continue in the next few days, with UN support continuing for the “Memorandum of Understanding on the facilitation of Russian food and fertilizer exports.”

“For the reasons I have set out, continuation of the Black Sea Initiative is critical, as is recommitment by the parties to its smooth and efficient operation. We call on all parties to meet their responsibilities in this regard.”

“The world is watching”, he underlined.

A war none can afford

He ended telling the Council it was clear that neither the people of Ukraine, or millions around the world who have suffered as a result of the economic chaos and supply chain issues, “can ill afford a continuation of this war.”

Mr. Griffiths called on Security Council member and all nations, to support all efforts to end “the carnage and destruction.”

“In the meantime, the United Nations and its humanitarian partners remain committed to safeguarding the life and dignity of persons affected by the war and to the pursuit of peace – today, tomorrow, and for as long as it takes.”