Storm bears down on Myanmar, Bangladesh A cyclone threatening to lash coastal areas of Bangladesh and Myanmar appeared to have weakened, but the UN believes it could still bring "life-threatening conditions" for 8.2 million people in northeast India, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Cyclone Mahasen was downgraded Wednesday to a Category 1 storm, according to the United Nations" Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs. It is moving northeastward over the Bay of Bengal and expected to make landfall late Thursday or early Friday morning, north of the Bangladeshi city of Chittagong. Packing winds of up to 100 kilometres an hour at its centre, it could unleash a storm surge of up to three metres, the Bangladesh Meteorological Department said. Myanmar In the state of Rakhine, many Muslim Rohingya made homeless by communal bloodshed last year said they were too scared to move, reflecting their deep mistrust of the authorities and of local Buddhists. We could die here. We have no place to go," said Yu Sut Taw, a Muslim man living in a camp on the outskirts of the state capital, Sittwe, one of several that are home to a total of 140,000 displaced persons. Nearly half of those displaced are in coastal areas considered highly vulnerable to storm surges and flooding from Mahasen. The issue has been complicated by widespread anti-Muslim sentiment in Rakhine. Rohingya have suffered decades of discrimination in largely Buddhist Myanmar, which does not consider them citizens. Tensions are still running high in Rakhine state nearly a year after unrest that killed at least 192 people and left hundreds of Rohingya homes in ruins. The violence has largely segregated Rakhine state along religious lines, with prominent Buddhists, including monks, urging people to boycott Muslim businesses. Agence France-Presse reporters who visited two camps on Wednesday saw few signs of a mass evacuation under way. The danger faced by those trying to flee was underlined on Monday when 58 Rohingya went missing after their boat capsized as they tried to escape by sea to higher ground along the coast. Bangladesh Already traumatized by last month's collapse of a building that killed more than 1,100 garment workers, the country evacuated more than 700,000 people living in low-lying areas to thousands of cyclone shelters. The Bangladesh Meteorological Department said the storm could create a two-metre high surge in coastal districts. Authorities have raised the danger level to seven out of 10 for those vicinities. Authorities in the southeastern city of Chittagong, about 200 kilometres south of Dhaka, shut all garment factories ahead of the storm. Around 30 million of Bangladesh's 153 million people live along the coast, which is also home to ramshackle camps housing Rohingya refugees. Authorities also say 113 medical teams have been sent to deal with the impact of the cyclone. Mohammed Kamruzzaman, a government magistrate in charge of a Rohingya camp in the Bangladeshi town of Cox's Bazaar, said officials used loudspeakers to warn people of the impending danger. "We've also stockpiled dry food, kept medical teams and ambulances on standby and shifted the sick and pregnant women from the camps to hospitals," he said. Sources: AP, AFP, Reuters, BBC