Eight children killed in landslide at Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh

Heavy monsoon rains triggered a landslide at a madrassa in a Rohingya refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh on Wednesday, killing eight children and injuring five others, officials said.

• The landslide buried the madrassa under mud and debris after days of heavy rain.

• Rescuers recovered 13 children from the madrassa, eight of whom died, while the rest were admitted to hospitals in the camps for treatment.

• The deaths came after separate rain-triggered landslides earlier this week killed eight Rohingya refugees, including women and children, in the camps.

• More than 1.2 million Rohingya refugees live in overcrowded camps in Cox's Bazar, the world’s largest refugee settlement, after fleeing a 2017 military crackdown in neighbouring Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

• Most families live in makeshift bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelters on steep, deforested hillsides that are vulnerable to landslides during the annual monsoon season.

• Authorities have been relocating families from high-risk areas as heavy rainfall increases the danger of landslides.

• The Bangladesh Meteorological Department has forecast more rain in the coming days, and officials remain on alert for landslides and flash floods.

-Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by YP Rajesh/Reuters