Heavy monsoon rain is flooding makeshift camps in Bangladesh housing hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar. Amid food and water shortages, torrential rain brought back swamp-like conditions to many parts of the border town of Cox’s Bazar. Almost 8cm of rain fell in 24 hours and more is predicted in the next two days, the Bangladesh weather department said. Bangladesh authorities, who have already issued travel restrictions on the Rohingya, launched an operation late on Saturday to move tens of thousands of people out of roadside camps and hillside shanties into a giant new camp.
The UN says 409,000 Rohingya have arrived in Cox’s Bazar since 25 August when the military in Buddhist-majority Myanmar launched operations in Rakhine state. As existing camps are already full with 300,000 Rohingya having fled earlier violence, many of the newer arrivals have been forced to live in the open air or under structures made from plastic sheeting. Police have ordered exhausted families to go to the Balukhali camp in Cox’s Bazar, which is being cleared to build new shelters.
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