Millions who survived one of Myanmar’s strongest cyclones are now struggling to rebuild their lives after the government cut off access to affected areas, including for aid groups.

The move has “turned an extreme weather event into a man-made catastrophe,” Human Rights Watch has said.

Cyclone Mocha hit on 14 May, wreaking havoc and killing hundreds.

The BBC spoke to families who are reeling from dwindling aid a month after their homes were destroyed.

There isn’t enough water or food, and finding either has been much harder with the monsoon under way, says Aye Kyawt Phyu, who lives in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state, which was ravaged by the storm. “It’s raining all week. We are struggling every day. The children are studying in a school with no roof.”

'When the storm hit, all the houses collapsed. There is nowhere to stay," said San San Htay, who also lives in Sittwe. “When it rains now, I am sitting in the rain. I can’t even sleep.”

Only a fraction of damaged homes have been repaired, the UN’s humanitarian office said. The junta says the cyclone killed 145 people, but the clandestine National Unity Government estimates that the toll was closer to 500. The Arakan Army, an ethnic insurgent group in Rakhine, said that the storm destroyed more than 2,000 villages and 280,000 homes in the state.

Of the 5.4 million people in Myanmar who were in Cyclone Mocha’s path, nearly 3.2 million are considered “most vulnerable” according to the UN. Rakhine, where Aye Kyawt Phyu and San San Htay live, is one of the country’s poorest states. Some 78% of its population lived below the poverty line as of 2019, according to the World Bank’s last estimate.