At least eight Rohingya Muslims, including women and children, were killed and several others injured early Monday after heavy monsoon rains triggered multiple landslides at refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh, officials said.
Overcrowded camps face monsoon peril
More than 1.2 million Rohingya live in overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar, the world’s largest refugee settlement, after fleeing a 2017 military crackdown in neighboring Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where they are accused of being outsiders. Most families live in makeshift shelters made of bamboo and plastic sheets on steep, deforested hillsides that are highly vulnerable to landslides during the annual monsoon season.
Fled persecution, lost family to landslide
The landslides hit four locations across the camps, burying shelters under mud and debris while residents were asleep. A Bangladeshi man was killed and two family members were injured when part of a hillside collapsed onto their house in Cox’s Bazar, police said. “We were asleep when the landslide struck,” said Ali Ahmed, who lost three family members when their bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelter was buried in the disaster. “Fire Service personnel and neighbors rescued us, but my mother, father and younger brother did not survive.” “We fled Myanmar in 2017 to escape persecution. Now I’ve lost my family here too, and I don’t know what lies ahead for me.”
Continued rainfall raises risk
Continued rainfall had increased the risk of further landslides, with thousands of refugees still living on unstable slopes, said Tumpa Das, a police official in Cox’s Bazar. “Every time heavy rain begins, fear spreads through the camps,” said Rohingya refugee Mohammed Taher. “Thousands live in bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelters on unstable hillsides, where even a minor landslide can become a deadly disaster.”
Authorities relocate thousands
Authorities have already relocated at least 1,000 Rohingya refugees from landslide-prone areas to safer places and plan to move several thousand more in phases, officials said. “Awareness campaigns are also under way across the camps to reduce the risk of further casualties,” said Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and repatriation commissioner.
Renewed conflict raises influx fears
Renewed fighting in Myanmar’s Rakhine State has raised concern of a fresh influx of Rohingya refugees across the border. Bangladeshi authorities have stepped up monitoring along the frontier amid reports of people gathering near the border seeking to enter the country.
Forecast warns of more rain
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department has forecast more heavy rain in the coming days, prompting authorities to remain on alert for additional landslides and flash floods. Landslides and flooding are common during the monsoon season in the refugee camps, often killing people and damaging homes, roads and other facilities.
