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Authorities in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh used loudspeakers and a network of volunteers and community leaders to evacuate people from dangerous areas to safety on Thursday after landslides killed at least 13 refugees in the past few days.
At least five children were killed on Wednesday when landslides triggered by heavy rains flooded a Muslim school in a camp in Cox’s Bazar, home to more than a million Rohingya refugees from neighboring Myanmar.
The teacher of the Islamic school described the scene of the landslide as chaos, saying that the girls in the school were preparing to study when part of the building collapsed.
“We who were on the west side were able to get out, but everyone on the east side was buried under the rubble,” said teacher Begum Jahan.
People in the refugee camp began rescue operations before emergency services arrived at the scene, said Dollar Tripura, head of the local fire department and civil protection, said on Thursday. He added that emergency services later rescued the injured and removed the bodies.
The rescue operation was called off on Wednesday evening.
Jamal Hossain, a Rohingya volunteer who helped in the rescue effort, said that the people who were rescued at the scene were taken to the hospital and the dead were all women.
“However, we do not know if there are still bodies buried under it,” he said.
Authorities in Cox’s Bazar said they were evacuating refugees from vulnerable hilly areas and more than 1,000 people had been evacuated. They said refugees are often reluctant to leave their temporary homes despite warnings.
The Bangladesh weather office is predicting more rain in the coming days.
Local media reported that at least 22 people have died in the sub-delta nation of 170 million people in landslides and wall collapses over the past three days.
Bangladesh has called on the international community for years to help the country begin repatriating refugees from Myanmar, but the process has stalled.
The same army that attacked the Rohingya in 2017 during which many Western countries and international organizations have declared that genocide still dominates Myanmar. That made it difficult for the Rohingya to return home safely.
Many Rohingya try to escape to Malaysia and other parts of Asia on drifting fishing boats – an incredibly dangerous journey that results in hundreds of Rohingya children, women and men dying or disappearing each year.
For those still in the camps, US aid cuts since last year have exacerbated the misery, especially for children, leading to the closure of several schools and cuts in food aid.
