Five Students Killed in Rohingya Camp Landslide in Ukhiya

At least five students have been killed after a devastating landslide buried a religious school at a Rohingya refugee camp in Ukhiya, Cox’s Bazar. The catastrophic incident, triggered by heavy monsoon rains, has also left several other children missing beneath the debris. Emergency rescue teams are working frantically at the scene to locate survivors amidst fears that the death toll could rise.

The disaster occurred at approximately 2:30 pm on Wednesday, 8 July, in the Block 5 area of the refugee settlement. According to local community leaders and witnesses, around 40 students were inside the madrasa building when a massive chunk of a nearby hillside suddenly collapsed, completely crushing the structure. The sheer volume of mud and earth caused the building to buckle instantly, trapping dozens of young victims underneath.

Two specialised units from the Fire Service and Civil Defence were deployed immediately to spearhead the rescue operation. They were joined by Armed Police Battalion (APBn) personnel and Rohingya volunteers, who began digging through the thick mud with shovels and bare hands. The remote and congested nature of the camps has complicated the arrival of heavy earth-moving machinery, forcing rescuers to rely largely on manual methods to clear the site safely.

The Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC), Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, confirmed the tragic fatalities. He noted that emergency services responded swiftly to the alarm, recovering five bodies from the wreckage during the initial hours of the operation. However, the commissioner stated that it remains impossible to provide an exact figure regarding the number of children still trapped or missing until the site is fully cleared.

The hilly terrain of Cox’s Bazar is notoriously prone to fatal landslides during the monsoon season. Due to extensive deforestation and the fragile nature of the makeshift shelters constructed across the steep slopes, heavy rainfall rapidly destabilises the soil. The region has experienced relentless downpours over the last few days, which authorities believe oversaturated the hillside and triggered the fatal collapse. Distraught relatives have gathered around the cordoned-off disaster zone as rescue operations continue under challenging weather conditions.