July 2, 2024
COX’S BAZAR – Many Rohingyas are living in constant fear of landslides, due to incessant rain continuing for over a week in Cox’s Bazar. The Cox’s Bazar weather office also issued a landslide warning over the last few days.
Some Rohingyas have taken shelter in safer locations, but a number of them are still living in the risky hilly areas, as they have nowhere else to go. The refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar are home to around 1.2 million Rohingyas.
The memory of the June 19 incident, where eight Rohingyas and two Bangladeshi nationals were killed by landslides is still fresh in the minds of many Rohingyas.
After the incident, Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mohammad Mizanur Rahman attributed the lack of maintenance of protection fences as the cause of the accident.
“Protection measures including fences and sandbags were not maintained for the last two years since site management agencies had to cut their allocations for maintenance purposes due to shortage of funds, ” he added.
He also said that there is no place to permanently relocate the Rohingyas living at risk of landslides.
“We pass the days roaming around to avoid any landslides. Panic grips us in the night when we come to our shanties, which are built on the foot of a hill. We have nowhere to go,” said Mohammad Rochit, a Rohingya living at Camp 8.
Mohammad Samsudduza, additional refugee relief and repatriation commissioner, said it is difficult to identify which Rohingyas are at risk of landslides, as the entire camp was built in the hilly region.
Around 2,000-3,000 Rohingyas are living at risk of landslides. Many of them were temporarily relocated to safer places, he said.
Besides the relocation, various organisations are working to reduce the risk of landslides in the camp, he also said.
Md Emdad, chairman of Camp 10, said the people of his camp are at risk of landslides. So, they have shifted many of them to safer places like community centres.