UN aid agencies have been working with the government of Myanmar to make preparations for a forthcoming tropical cyclone, including relocating roughly 36,000 displaced people, a UN spokesman told reporters here on Wednesday.

"The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that, according to the government of Myanmar's Rakhine State, some 36,000 displaced people have relocated as Cyclone Mahasen approaches," said Martin Nesirky, spokesperson for UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon, at a daily briefing here.

Tropical Cyclone Mahasen, expected to make landfall within the next 24 to 36 hours, is possibly threatening millions of people across the region.

As of now, "aid organizations in Rakhine, including the UN Refugee Agency (UNCHR) and OCHA, are monitoring as many of the relocations as possible" as well as "providing the uprooted with information on the storm, on the need to move to safe places and on the government's preparedness plan," Nesirky said.

At this time, "humanitarian agencies report some reluctance by the uprooted to move due to a lack of understanding and fear that they will not be relocated back to the locations where they are currently living," Nesirky said.

At this moment, "UN agencies and their partners have stressed with both communities and the government the importance of ensuring safety and the protection of people at risk," he said.

So far, "the government in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine, today asked community leaders of both the Rakhine and Rohingya communities to help with the relocations by explaining to the communities the need to move to safe areas," he said.

Late last week the country's Meteorology and Hydrology Department projected and warned about a possible severe storm over the country's western Rakhine coastal areas.

The department also warned of heavy rain in central region, especially Magway, Sagaing and Mandalay with possible danger of landslide and raging torrent when the cyclone passes through such Rakhine coastal areas as Maungtaw and Sittway at a wind speed of as high as 190 kilometers per hour. Enditem

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