Children, Teacher Killed In Bangladesh Landslide At World’s Largest Rohingya Refugee Camp

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent

COX’S BAZAR, BANGLADESH (Worthy News) – At least seven children and a teacher were killed Wednesday when heavy monsoon rains triggered a landslide at the world’s largest Rohingya refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh, officials said.

The landslide struck a makeshift school while classes were underway, burying the structure beneath mud and debris as rescuers raced to reach those trapped.

Bangladesh Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mohammed Mizanur Rahman said seven children and their teacher died in the disaster.

“Unfortunately, four died at the scene, while four others died in hospital,” Rahman said.

MONSOON TRAGEDY

Emergency workers clawed through thick mud in a desperate effort to recover victims after the landslide struck the sprawling settlement, home to more than 1.2 million mostly Rohingya refugees who fled a brutal military crackdown in neighboring Myanmar, also known as Burma, in 2017.

The tragedy doubled this week’s death toll from rain-related disasters after separate monsoon-triggered landslides killed at least eight Rohingya refugees elsewhere in the settlement just days earlier.

Many refugees live in crowded bamboo-and-plastic shelters built on steep hillsides cleared of forests, leaving the ground highly vulnerable to landslides during the annual monsoon season.

Refugee representative Sayed Ullah, president of the United Council of Rohingya, said the disaster highlighted the urgent need for safer land.

CALLS FOR SAFER SHELTER

“We don’t see proper coordination over the accommodation of the Rohingya, and that is reflected in these accidents,” he added.

Bangladesh’s Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre warned that torrential rain is likely to continue for at least four more days, raising fears of additional landslides and flooding in the overcrowded camps.

Authorities said rescue teams remained on alert as unstable hillsides and saturated ground threatened further collapses across the vast refugee settlement.

The latest disaster underscored the dangers facing hundreds of thousands of displaced people living in fragile shelters as South Asia enters the peak of the annual monsoon season.

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