Dhaka: At least six people were killed, and many dwellings were damaged in several rain-triggered landslides in Bangladesh’s southeastern Cox’s Bazar district, a senior official said Friday.
Mohammad Shamsuddouza Nayan, additional refugee relief and repatriation commissioner, said a huge landslide took place Thursday in a refugee camp in the Cox’s Bazar district, some 392 km southeast of Dhaka.
He said three members of a Rohingya family died due to the landslide at the Hatikumrul-14 Rohingya camp in the district, which is now home to nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees. Most of them are living on the slopes of the hills, and the landslide destroyed at least three huts in the camp.
In a remote hilly area of the Cox’s Bazar district, three more people were reportedly killed early Friday when the wall of their house collapsed in a landslide, Xinhua news agency reported.
Authorities are working to evacuate those still living in risky slopes.
Landslides are frequent in Bangladesh’s hilly areas during monsoon that usually runs from June to September, as land has been deforested to grow crops and build houses.
–IANS