Heavy rains and squally weather have started battering the Rohingya refugees living in makeshift camps in the Cox’s Bazar’s Ukhiya upazila and no man’s land between Bangladesh’s Konarpara and Myanmar’s Tambru border points.
A Rohingya minor boy was killed and his mother injured after a mud wall of their hut collapsed on them during a storm at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhiya on Monday morning.
The boy was identified as three-year-old Faruk, son of Abdur Shukkur and Sokhina Khatun, according to sources from the camp and Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Md Nikaruzzaman Chowdhury.
The child died on the spot while Sokhina survived with injuries after the wall of their hut at the Block H of Camp No 7’s Hill No E3 collapsed during heavy rain, Nikaruzzaman said.
Faruk’s body was kept at a camp hospital and Sokhina was admitted to Ukhiya Upazila Health Complex.
Since Saturday, the first monsoon rains had started hitting the Cox’s Bazar camps housing over one million Rohingya refugees, triggering flash-floods and landslides and destroying the makeshift shelters.
Apart from the three-year-old boy’s death, there were, however, no reports of any major casualties.
Aid agencies have been warning that the monsoon season could prompt a humanitarian catastrophe in coming months at what is the world's biggest refugee camp, sheltering people that have fled violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state over the years.
Waterlogging, due to landslides, has proved to be a curse at the Balukhali Rohingya camp too, adding to the refugees’ woe.
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UNO Nikaruzzaman confirmed that the squally weather and landslides were responsible for the destruction of more than 50 shelters at the D-4 and D-7 blocks at the Kutupalong camp.
Other than the death on Monday morning, only one person was injured in one of the incidents so far, he said.
Refugee leader Abul Kashem said, apart from the landslides, several areas of the camp were inundated following heavy rain in the past two days.
Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission officials said that more than 600 shelters were destroyed in the past three weeks following heavy downpour and landslides.
UN refugee agency spokesperson Caroline Gluck on Sunday told AFP that so far nearly 29,000 refugees had been relocated to new areas out of an estimated 200,000 people at very high risk of landslides and flood, who need to be moved to safer areas.
Tambru camp underwater
Meanwhile, the Rohingya refugees’ camp in the no man’s land between Bangladesh’s Konarpara and Myanmar’s Tambru was inundated after flash-floods on Sunday.
Rohingya leaders Dil Mohammad told the Dhaka Tribune that many of their shelters at the camp were submerged after Tambru Canal’s water level rose following heavy rain and flash-floods since morning.
The refuges were immensely suffering after losing their habitats and forced to take shelter on the hills in the no man’s land, he said, adding that many Rohingyas had also taken shelter in Bangladesh territory.
Another refugee leader Md Arif said the Border Guard Bangladesh personnel were helping the Rohingyas to cross over and find shelters.
“But we are worried as we will have to build the roofs over our heads again from scratch. We are also worried about food and medicines for the ailing ones,” he added.
Over 5,000 Rohingya people had taken shelter in Tambru’s no man’s land, near Ghumdum border area under Bandarban’s Naikhongchhari upazila, since August 25 last year, when ethnic conflicts in Rakhine sparked the most rapid human exodus seen since the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
Since then, more than 700,000 Rohingyas crossed into Bangladesh fleeing brutal persecution by Myanmar’s security forces, joining more than 400,000 others who were already living in cramped makeshift camps in Cox’s Bazar.
