At least nine people, including eight Rohingya refugees, have been killed after heavy monsoon rains triggered landslides in southeastern Bangladesh, officials said.
The landslides struck four locations in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps between late Sunday and early Monday, burying shelters while residents were asleep. Authorities also confirmed the death of a Bangladeshi man after a hillside collapsed onto his home.
More than one million Rohingya refugees live in overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar after fleeing violence in Myanmar in 2017. Many shelters are built on steep hillsides with bamboo and plastic, making them highly vulnerable to landslides during the monsoon season.
Authorities have relocated around 1,000 refugees from high-risk areas and plan to move thousands more as the weather department forecasts additional heavy rainfall in the coming days.
Officials are also increasing security along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border amid concerns that renewed fighting in Myanmar’s Rakhine state could force more people to seek refuge in Bangladesh.
