Landslip kills seven children, teacher at Rohingya camp in Bangladesh

At least seven children and a teacher were killed in a landslip caused by monsoon rains at a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh’s southeastern Cox’s Bazar.

Four of the children were killed at the scene of the landslip, while four others died at the local hospital after they were rescued, Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) Mohammed Mizanur Rahman said.

He said the authorities relocated families from high-risk areas as heavy rainfall increased the danger of more landslip.

United Council of Rohingya president Sayed Ullah said the landslip buried an Islamic seminary inside the hilly camp complex under mud and debris during the study hours after days of heavy downpour.

Over 1.2 million Rohingyas, the ethnic minority Muslims, fled their homeland in Myanmar’s Rakhine state during a military crackdown in 2017, which the UN had called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

Bangladesh offered them temporary refuge in crowded infrastructure with plastic sheets as their roofs.

The latest tragedy occurred after media and officials reported deaths of 10 Rohingyas and displacement of several thousand others in recent weeks, mostly due to subsequent landslip and flash floods.

“Several of them died while asleep when the landslip and flash floods occurred,” the RRRC’s Office said.

Bangladesh’s Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre said torrential rain was likely to continue for four more days in the region.