Days of heavy rainfall have pounded Rohingya refugee camps in southern Bangladesh, destroying dwellings and sending thousands of individuals to measure with extended families or in communal shelters.
In the 24 hours until Wednesday afternoon, quite 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) of rain fell on the camps in Cox’s Bazar district hosting quite 800,000 Rohingya, the UN refugee agency said.
That’s nearly half the typical July rainfall at some point, and more heavy downpours are expected within the next few days and therefore the monsoon season stretches over subsequent three months.
The situation is further compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic.
There is currently a strict national lockdown in response to rising cases across the country, the agency said.
It said six people died within the camps earlier in the week five people during a landslide caused by the rains and a toddler caught in a frenzy by floodwaters.
Citing initial reports, the UN diplomat for Refugees said quite 12,000 refugees were suffering from the heavy rain and an estimated 2,500 shelters were damaged or destroyed.
More than 5,000 refugees are temporarily relocated to other family members’ shelters or communal facilities, the agency said during a statement.
Hannah Macdonald, a spokesperson for the UNHCR, said in an email that emergency response teams are deployed to assist affected families.
Refugees said they were struggling to eat and drink properly.
Due to the continual rainfall for the last four days, today my home is filled with water, said Khatija Begum, who has five children. We aren’t even ready to eat. Begum said she fears her children will drown and die in their sleep.
The refugee agency said the inclemency , landslides and floods have further exacerbated the suffering and humanitarian needs of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
Cyclones, heavy monsoon rains, floods, landslides and other natural hazards are an annual difficulty within the camps. quite 700,000 Rohingya have fled to refugee camps in Bangladesh since August 2017, when the military in Buddhist-majority Myanmar began a harsh crackdown on the Muslim ethnos following an attack by insurgents.
The crackdown included rapes, killings and therefore the torching of thousands of homes, and was termed group action by global rights groups and therefore the United Nations . While Bangladesh and Myanmar have sought to rearrange repatriations, the Rohingya are too fearful to return home.
The world organization for Migration says Cox’s Bazar district, where quite 1 million Rohingya refugees live, is one among the foremost disaster-prone parts of Bangladesh.
It is a delta nation crisscrossed by many rivers that often receives intense rainfall thanks to its monsoon climate and site on the Bay of Bengal, where the nice and cozy waters can generate destructive tropical cyclones.
