• Burmese
Monday, June 16, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
28 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home News Burma

Burma Issues Cyclone Warning

Todd Pitman by Todd Pitman
May 13, 2013
in Uncategorized
Reading Time: 2 mins read
0 0
A A
Burma Issues Cyclone Warning

Tens of thousands of Rohingyas who were displaced by a violent communal strife between Arakan Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims last year have sheltered at camps in Sittwe and other cities in Arakan State. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

3k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

RANGOON—Burma’s government warned Saturday that a new cyclone barreling north into the Bay of Bengal could threaten the country’s western coast next week, raising fears the storm could swamp low-lying camps housing tens of thousands of embattled Rohingya Muslims who fled sectarian violence last year.

The brunt of the cyclone is currently heading toward Chittagong, Bangladesh. But its direction could still shift northeast and hit Burma’s Arakan State when it makes landfall at midweek, Burma’s Meteorology Department and humanitarian aid officials monitoring the situation said.

The storm is predicted to hit late Wednesday or Thursday morning, and heavy rains and strong winds are expected to batter Arakan State regardless. Around 140,000 people—mostly Rohingya—are living in flimsy tents and makeshift shelters in the region after two outbreaks of Buddhist-Muslim violence there last year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

RelatedPosts

Bangladeshi Islamist Party Proposes Independent Rohingya State in Myanmar’s Rakhine

Bangladeshi Islamist Party Proposes Independent Rohingya State in Myanmar’s Rakhine

April 28, 2025
2.4k
Myanmar Refugees in Limbo, Thailand in Denial

Myanmar Refugees in Limbo, Thailand in Denial

March 22, 2025
2.7k
Bangladesh Arrests Notorious Rohingya Militant Leader

Bangladesh Arrests Notorious Rohingya Militant Leader

March 19, 2025
1.2k

Nearly 70,000 of those displaced are in low-lying areas along the coast that are highly susceptible to tidal surges and flooding and should be moved to higher ground, said Ashok Nigam, the United Nations’ resident and humanitarian coordinator.

“We’re very concerned,” Nigam told The Associated Press. “We need to be prepared for the worst.”

Burma’s southern delta was devastated in 2008 Cyclone Nargis, an intense storm which swept away entire farming villages and killed more than 130,000 people.

Kelland Stevenson, country director for the international charity Save the Children, said aid agencies in Burma held an emergency meeting Saturday to check stocks of food and shelter and draw up contingency plans.

“The information we’re getting now is that the storm is tracking away from Rakhine [Arakan] State, but it can change course at any minute,” Stevenson said.

And either way, “there will be rain,” he added. “It is likely to bring a significant amount of water.”

Aid groups have issued warnings for weeks over the plight of the displaced amid fears that annual monsoon rains could wreak havoc in their camps and spark outbreaks of cholera or other diseases. But discussions over where to move the Rohingya have been complicated by widespread anti-Muslim sentiment, which still runs high nearly a year after unrest between the areas ethnic Arakanese Buddhists and the Rohingya erupted in June 2012.

The violence has largely segregated Arakan State along religious lines, with prominent Buddhists—including monks—urging people to boycott Muslim businesses. Tens of thousands of Rohingya have been confined to cramped camps, their movement heavily restricted. Unable to go home, most cannot work or attend school.

The Rohingya have suffered discrimination for decades. Long viewed as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, most are denied citizenship despite the fact that many have lived in Burma for generations.

On Saturday, state television broadcast cyclone warnings and President Thein Sein instructed regional authorities to be ready in case the storm hits. Myo Thant, a spokesman for Arakan State, said officials there had issued warnings in the camps and are identifying evacuation locations in case the cyclone threat increases.

Chit Kyaw, the deputy director of Burma’s Department of Meteorology, said that if the cyclone stays on its course toward Bangladesh, its swirling arms could sweep over Buthidaung and Maungdaw in northernmost Arakan State.

Nigam, the senior UN official, said the United Nations is urging the government to move the most vulnerable displaced people in Arakan to higher ground in case disaster strikes. He named three areas with high concentrations of displaced Muslims, all of them south of Buthidaung. They are the state capital, Sittwe, Pauktaw to the east, and Myebon farther south.

Associated Press writers Aye Aye Win and Yadana Htun contributed to this report.

Your Thoughts …
Tags: Refugees
Todd Pitman

Todd Pitman

The Associated Press

Similar Picks:

Myanmar Youth Exodus Feared in Wake of Junta’s Conscription Law
Burma

Myanmar Youth Exodus Feared in Wake of Junta’s Conscription Law

by The Irrawaddy
February 15, 2024
15.7k

Activists warn of increased labor rights violations in Thailand and human trafficking as young people flee to avoid mandatory military...

Read moreDetails
By Almost Every Measure, Myanmar Junta Ranks Among World’s Worst Regimes
Analysis

By Almost Every Measure, Myanmar Junta Ranks Among World’s Worst Regimes

by Khin Nadi
February 2, 2024
10.8k

The Irrawaddy unpacks the regime’s three-year track record of violence and rights abuses, as assessed by leading global organizations and...

Read moreDetails
Karen Ethnic Army Launches Final Push to Capture Myawaddy on Thai Border
Burma

Karen Ethnic Army Launches Final Push to Capture Myawaddy on Thai Border

by The Irrawaddy
April 9, 2024
10.3k

The KNLA and PDF groups launched an attack on the last junta battalion defending Myawaddy on Tuesday afternoon and were...

Read moreDetails
Illegal Entry Arrests Surge in Thailand Amid Forced Military Conscription in Myanmar
Myanmar’s Crisis & the World

Illegal Entry Arrests Surge in Thailand Amid Forced Military Conscription in Myanmar

by Brian Wei
May 30, 2024
9.4k

More than half of the soaring number of people being detained at the border said they were fleeing conscription, a...

Read moreDetails
Clashes Resume on Thai-Myanmar Border
Burma

Clashes Resume on Thai-Myanmar Border

by AFP
April 20, 2024
7k

Myanmar junta troops near the Second Friendship Bridge to Thailand are holding out against anti-regime forces.

Read moreDetails
Myanmar Junta Causes Thailand Problems
Guest Column

Myanmar Junta Causes Thailand Problems

by Paul Greening
March 7, 2024
6.8k

The multiple crises on Thailand’s border sparked by the Myanmar junta’s failed coup could present opportunities for Bangkok, but so...

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
Foreign Investment Jumps Fivefold in Burma

Foreign Investment Jumps Fivefold in Burma

Death Toll Rises in East Burma Mining Accident

Death Toll Rises in East Burma Mining Accident

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

The Hidden Fallout From China’s Cross-Border Crime Crackdown in Myanmar

The Hidden Fallout From China’s Cross-Border Crime Crackdown in Myanmar

1 week ago
1.7k
Is TNLA, Under Chinese Pressure, Conceding Northern Shan Gateway to the Regime?

Is TNLA, Under Chinese Pressure, Conceding Northern Shan Gateway to the Regime?

3 days ago
1.2k

Most Read

  • China is Systematically Dismantling Tibetan Monastic Traditions

    China is Systematically Dismantling Tibetan Monastic Traditions

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Untested Commander Takes Charge as Myanmar Military Faces Toughest Challenge in Decades

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Sagaing Protesters Condemn Civilian Govt Toll Charges

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Sagaing Region Braced for Myanmar Junta Airstrikes After Jet Crash

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Is TNLA, Under Chinese Pressure, Conceding Northern Shan Gateway to the Regime?

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.