UNITED NATIONS, May 15- The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Tropical Cyclone Mahasen is moving toward India, Bangladesh and Myanmar and is expected to land later this week, Xinhua news agency reported.
“A red storm alert remains in effect for Tropical Cyclone Mahasen which is moving towards India, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
It is expected to make landfall on Thursday,” UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said at a daily news briefing Tuesday. “Depending on the cyclone’s final trajectory, it could threaten the lives of millions of people in northeast India, Bangladesh and Myanmar’s Rakhine State,”
he said.
Bangladesh and Myanmar have issued a cyclone alert and made necessary preparations for the storm.
Humanitarian agencies in Bangladesh have started prepositioning supplies in the most vulnerable areas.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department on Monday said Mahasen was currently in the Bay of Bengal, some 1,355 kilometres south west of Chittagong and could make landfall in the country’s southeast on Thursday.
In Myanmar, the Rakhine State government has activated its disaster reduction plans including relocation and evacuation.
Myanmar has begun moving people living in flood-prone camps in Rahhine State in western part of the country to higher ground in preparation for the cyclone, reports said.
-BERNAMA
