Three Rohingya refugees killed as monsoon rains hit Cox's Bazar

At least three Rohingya refugee have died and more have been made homeless after lethal mudslides in camps in Bangladesh

Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Shaikh Azizur Rahman

At least three three Rohingya refugees have died in Cox’s Bazar after extreme monsoon rains hit the refugee camps causing lethal mudslides.

A 3-year-old Rohingya boy died and his mother was injured when the mud walls of their house in Kutupalong settlement collapsed while they were sleeping. Two Rohingya refugees were killed in Balukhali camp. Mohammad Ali, 20, died after he was crushed by an uprooted tree on Tuesday morning, while a Rohingya woman died after she was crushed in her shack when the rain triggered a landslide.

Over the weekend the Bangladeshi region received more than a third of the rainfall it typically receives during the entire monsoon period, damaging thousands of tents and leaving several refugees homeless.

After his shack at the bottom of a hill in Balukhali camp was destroyed on Monday, Jafor Alom was living under a makeshift tarpaulin, along with his wife and three children. “It’s only the beginning of the monsoon,” said Alom. “I cannot understand how we will live in this tent-like place for next two or three months when it is likely to rain heavily again. It’s a very bad timing with the Eid [Eid al-Fitr] being a few days away. We are in dire miseries. We cannot celebrate the biggest [Muslim] festival this time at all.”