At least eight Rohingya children were killed and five others injured after a rain-triggered landslide buried a madrassa inside a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on Wednesday.
The landslide occurred after days of heavy monsoon rainfall, covering the religious school with mud and debris. Rescue teams pulled 13 children from the site, but eight of them succumbed to their injuries, while the remaining five were admitted to nearby hospitals for treatment.
The tragedy comes just days after separate landslides caused by heavy rains claimed the lives of eight other Rohingya refugees, including women and children, in the camps.
More than 1.2 million Rohingya refugees live in overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar after fleeing violence in Myanmar in 2017. Many families reside in temporary bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelters built on steep, deforested hillsides, making them highly vulnerable to landslides during the monsoon season.
Bangladesh authorities have been relocating families from high-risk areas as rainfall continues, while the Bangladesh Meteorological Department has warned of more heavy rain in the coming days, raising concerns over further landslides and flash floods.
