Landslides kill at least 15, displace millions, in Bangladesh and India
Al Jazeera
Hundreds of thousands are stranded by flash floods and heavy rain with refugee camps for Rohingya Muslims most affected.
Heavy monsoon rains have triggered landslides in Bangladesh and India, killing at least 15 people, injuring several others and displacing millions, according to officials.
Eight Rohingya Muslims were among those killed by mudslides in the early hours of Wednesday, Mohammad Shamsud Douza, a senior Bangladesh government official in charge of refugees, said. The disaster is the latest in a series triggered by extreme weather in South Asia and around the globe, with heavy rains and heatwaves having killed many people and caused humanitarian crises in recent months.
The refugees died in landslides in southern Bangladesh. More than one million Rohingya live in crowded camps in the border district of Cox’s Bazar, the world’s largest refugee settlement, after fleeing a military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar in 2017.
Amir Jafar, a police official in command of security in the refugee camps, said hundreds had been moved from areas deemed at risk.
The Rohingya refugees mostly live in shacks made of bamboo and plastic sheets, often on steep, bare hills.
