Monsoon Rains Trigger Deadly Flash Floods and Landslides in Cox’s Bazar Refugee Camps

UN agencies and the entire humanitarian community are deeply saddened by the tragic deaths of 10 people, including at least seven Rohingya refugees, as heavy monsoon rains battered refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar on Tuesday, causing flash floods and landslides.

According to initial reports, some 7,794 refugees have been affected across the 33 camps in Cox’s Bazar, with an estimated 1,191 shelters damaged or destroyed. Critical infrastructure, such as learning centers, health facilities, mosques, latrines, water points and bathing cubicles have also been damaged by the rising water and mudslides.

Since early morning, partners and refugee volunteers have been helping families in affected areas relocate to safer shelters and communal facilities until the waters recede.

UN agencies together with humanitarian partners, in coordination with the Government of Bangladesh, started to provide hot meals, high energy biscuits and post-disaster kits to the refugees, paying special attention to extremely vulnerable individuals, including older people and those living with disabilities.

In the last 24 hours alone, due to the active monsoon, very heavy rainfall (≥ 89 mm) fell on camps in Cox’s Bazar hosting some 930,000 Rohingya refugees. It is expected that there will be more heavy downpours as the monsoon season stretches at least over the next three months.  As Bangladesh is currently still recovering from Cyclone Remal which, less than a month ago, displaced a large number of Bangladeshi, heavy rains in the past week has led to widespread inundation across the country.

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For more information, please contact:

Syed Md Tafhim, ISCG, tafhim@iscgcxb.org 

Shari Yasmin Nijman; UNHCR; nijman@unhcr.org

Tarek Mahmud, IOM; tmahmud@iom.int