[🇧🇩] Insurgencies in Myanmar. Implications for Bangladesh

[Saif]

How is Myanmar's civil war impacting Bangladesh? – DW – 02/22/2024

Fighting between Myanmar's junta and rebel groups in Rakhine state is growing more intense. Neighboring Bangladesh may soon need to reach out to rebels on security and refugee issues.

www.dw.com

How is Myanmar's civil war impacting Bangladesh?
Arafatul Islam in Cox's Bazar
02/22/2024February 22, 2024

Bangladesh is closely watching the fighting in Myanmar's neighboring Rakhine state

Fighting between Myanmar's junta and rebel groups in Rakhine state is growing more intense. Neighboring Bangladesh may soon need to reach out to rebels on security and refugee issues.

Fighting between Myanmar's junta and the Arakan Army (AA) rebel group in western Myanmar's Rakhine state has intensified. Casualties have also been recorded in Bangladesh, with two people killed by an errant mortar round this month and several injured by gunshots from across the border. Rebel fighters have recently taken control of the Myanmar border region, and are seeking to oust junta forces from elsewhere in the state.

This comes as a heavy blow for the Myanmar's ruling junta, which seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi to find itself embroiled in a wide-scale civil war.

The Arakan Army is the military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority that seeks autonomy from Myanmar's central government. It has been attacking army outposts in Rakhine state since November 2023.

Rohingya refugees skeptical of return to Rakhine

Bangladesh is a predominantly Muslim country, which shares a 271-kilometer (168 miles) border with Buddhist-dominated Myanmar.

Bangladesh is also the home of more than a million mostly Muslim Rohingya refugees, which have been fleeing Myanmar for decades, and especially after Myanmar launched a brutal "clearance operation" in Rakhine state against them in 2017.

Talking to DW, several Rohingya refugees in the coastal Bangladeshi town of Cox's Bazar commented on the success of the AA rebels with skepticism. They do not believe that predominantly Buddhist rebel force is willing to do much to improve their fate, even if the rebels manage to oust the junta.

"Buddhists have indeed been fighting against the Myanmar government in Rakhine, but we want citizenship upon return," Rashid, a Rohingya camp leader, told DW.

"We have never heard from [the AA] that they will take us back by providing us citizenship."

Should Dhaka reach out to rebels?

However, Bangladeshi security expert M Sakhawat Hossain is more optimistic. The retired general points to pledges made by Myanmar's National Unity Government (NUG) to ensure safe, voluntary and dignified repatriation of Rohingya from Bangladesh.

The NUG is a shadow government comprised out of activists and elected ministers who were ousted by the military coup.

The body enjoys a good deal of international support and has plans of taking power in Naypyidaw after the junta is defeated.

"The United League of Arakan (ULA), the political wing of the Arakan Army, will rule Rakhine state if the junta government loses its battles against the rebels and the NUG takes control of Myanmar. The NUG supports the ULA, which means that the Rohingya community has a better chance to get citizenship under the NUG and ULA," Hossain told DW.

He thinks that Bangladesh needs to develop informal communication with key decision-makers in Rakhine for the future.

"I have been saying for years that Bangladesh needs to support the AA for its own interest. This support can be informal, like many other countries do. It's not important for Bangladesh what is happening in the whole of Myanmar, but what is happening in Rakhine and Chin states are very important for us in terms of security and refugee issues," he said.

Bangladeshi authorities hope to stop new refugee waves out of MyanmarImage: Arafatul Islam/DW

Sending back Rohingya could backfire

At the same time, Bangladesh must be cautious in reaching out to rebels in any way, according to Michael Kugelman, South Asia director of the Washington-based Wilson Center think tank.

"[Bangladesh] needs workable relations with the junta for the sake of border security cooperation and negotiations over the Rohingya. If Dhaka opens up channels with the rebels and the junta knows this, that could have deleterious implications for Dhaka's interests," he told DW.

Kugelman acknowledged that the rebels are making rapid gains against the junta. But this could push the junta to resort to even more brutal tactics, and that could in turn intensify the conflict and increase spillover effects in Bangladesh.

"AA gains or control in Rakhine may make conditions better for the Rohingya, but it could also make things more difficult," Kugelman said. The junta could interpret any initiative to repatriate the Rohingya refugees as a signal of cooperation between the Muslim group and the Buddhist rebels, which could "entail fresh threats to Rohingya communities," he told DW.

Smoke rises from fighting in Myanmar, seen from the Bangladesh side of the borderImage: Shafiqur Rahman/AP/picture alliance

Bangladesh doesn't want more refugeees

Meanwhile, Rohingya in Rakhine's Maungdaw area remain trapped amid fierce fighting between the junta forces and the AA rebels, Nay San Lwin, a co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition, told DW.

"The junta is losing on the battlefield, and the Rohingya are running to save their lives while the Arakan Army is attempting to take full control of the region," he said.

"In Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships, approximately 270,000 Rohingya are remaining. In the entire Rakhine state, there are approximately 600,000 Rohingya, including about 130,000 confined to camps," he added.

Nay runs one of the biggest Rohingya information hubs from Frankfurt, Germany. He thinks that the remaining Rohingya in Mynamar will attempt to flee the civil war, but would avoid Bangladesh.

"Rohingya in the region are very cautious about fleeing to Bangladesh. Many of their fellow Rohingya have been trapped in Bangladeshi camps for several years, and the prospect of repatriation is uncertain," he told DW.

"Only those in need of medical attention are attempting to flee to seek treatment in Bangladesh due to insufficient medical staff at Maungdaw Hospital. According to residents, the surgeon has left," Nay added.

And Bangladesh, already overwhelmed by continuous waves of refugees, is not in the mood to accept anyone from Myanmar at the moment.

"Our Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and coast guard have intensified their petrol at the border so that no one from Myanmar could infiltrate into Bangladesh," Muhammad Shaheen Imran, the deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazar, told DW.

Edited by: Darko Janjevic​

 

[Saif]

Rohingya entry from Myanmar into Bangladesh goes on

Rohingya people are still entering Bangladesh from Mymanmar’s conflict-hit state of Rakhine illegally by paying money to boatmen and brokers on both sides of the border.

www.newagebd.net

Rohingya entry from Myanmar into Bangladesh goes on
Tanzil Rahaman back from Cox’s Bazar 09 March, 2025, 00:00

File photo

53,948 registered in 2024, each pays over Tk 1 lakh to cross border

Rohingya people are still entering Bangladesh from Mymanmar’s conflict-hit state of Rakhine illegally by paying money to boatmen and brokers on both sides of the border.

The Rohingya intruders are using land and river routes along borders under Ukhiya and Teknaf upazilas in Cox’s Bazar and Naikhongchhari Upazila in Bandarban to reach Bangladesh, the community people and officials in Cox’s Bazar said.

According to the Office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, 53,948 Rohingyas received temporary joint registration from the RRRC and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for entering the camps in 2024. Most of them took registration in August and September of the year.

In 2024, a total of 225 Rohingyas were registered in January, 115 in February, 101 in March, 229 in April, 314 in May, 1, 135 in June, 5,809 in July, 27, 879 in August, 15, 296 in September, 2,546 in October, 179 in November and 120 Rohingyas were registered in December, according to the RRRC data.

It also showed that 116 were registered in January and 40 in February in 2025.

There are 34 camps for Rohingyas in Ukhiya and Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char in Noakhali, RRRC officials said.

Border Guard Bangladesh officials, however, said that they had sent back over 15,000 Rohingyas from borders in Ukhiya and Teknaf from May 2024 to February 2025.

A number of Rohingya people who entered Bangladesh illegally in 2024 alleged that each of them had to pay nearly 20 lakh Myanmar Kyat, equivalent to Tk 1.16 lakh, to both Myanmar and Bangladeshi people to enter Bangladesh.

Of the 20 lakh Mymanmar Kyat, the Rohingyas had to pay 15 lakh Kyat, equivalent to Tk 87,090, to Arakan Army and Kyat 5 lakh, equivalent to Tk 29,030, to boatmen and brokers.

Mujib Ullah, 40, a resident of Buthidaung town in the Northen Rakhaine State of Myanmar, entered Bangladesh by boat through the Teknaf border with his wife and six children on December 10, 2024.

‘I had to pay 60 lakh kyat for three persons – myself, my wife and my adult child. As my five other children are minors and teenagers, I did not have to pay for them. Of the amount, I had to pay 45 lakh kyat to Arakan Army and 15 lakh to boatmen and brokers,’ Mujib Ullah, now staying at a camp in Ukhiya, told New Age on March 2.

He said that he entered Bangladesh by boat crossing the River Naf and none of the law enforcement agencies was seen during his intrusion.

He claimed that the Arakan Army had arrested his only brother, vandalised and set fire to their house.

‘I have no other option but to flee with my family to save our lives,’ Mujib added.

Echoing almost the same expenditure, Sawiddur Rahman, another resident of Buthidaung town in Northern Rakhine State in Myanmar, said that he, his wife and three children entered Bangladesh using the land route on December 7, 2024 in the Tambru area of Naikkhangchhari in Bandarban.

‘I had to pay 60 lakh to the Arakan Army for myself, my wife and two children. The broker took Tk 15 lakh for five persons to enter into Bangladesh using the No Man’s Land along Tambru border,’ Sawiddur, living in another camp in Ukhiya said.

Like Mujib Ullah and Sawiddur Rahman, several Rohingyas sheltered in the camp recently expressed the same experience.

Most of the Rohingyas said that they entered Bangladesh in the dark of night between 10:00pm and 4:00am.

They, however, claimed that they did not require paying money for their minor children as the money was collected for only adult people.

Although BGB officials claimed that they never heard about collecting money by the Arakan Army, boatmen and brokers, Armed Police Battalion officials said that they heard about the matter from the people in Rohingya camps.

A racket comprising people from Myanmar and Bangladesh is working in the area to help Rohingyas enter Bangladesh illegally, according to Border Guard Bangladesh officials.

On March 1, the BGB launched its 64 Ukhiya Battalion in Cox’s Bazar amid rising tension between the Myanmar military junta and the Arakan Army along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

With the latest Ukhiya Battalion, the BGB now has four battalions in Cox’s Bazar district.

BGB Teknaf-2 battalion Commander Lieutenant Colonel Md Ashikur Rahman said that they had sent back more than 15, 000 Rohingyas who tried to enter Bangladesh illegally from May 2024 to February 2025.

‘The victims did not share about spending money to us during interrogation,’ he added.

Asked about the intrusion of Rohingyas in nighttime, he said that it would be difficult to cover a large area with the physical presence of BGB members.

‘We have to update our monitoring by using upgraded devices to check illegal Rohingya intrusion,’ the BGB official added.

APBN 16th Battalion commanding officer Kawser Shikdar, also an additional deputy inspector general of police, said that they heard about the issue of taking money from Rohingyas to enter Bangladesh.

Local people and Rohingyas alleged that many Rohingyas were now living outside the camps and involved in criminal activities with the help of a section of local people.

RRRC top official Mohammed Mizanur Rahman said that the number of people outside the camp was low.

Cox’s Bazar deputy commissioner Mohammad Salahuddin told New Age on Saturday that the BGB required some advanced technologies to tackle the illegal intrusion of Rohingyas and middlemen in the Bangladesh part.

‘We are trying our best to tackle the illegal intrusion of Rohingyas,’ the DC added.

Against the backdrop, the United Nations World Food Programme has warned of a critical funding shortfall for its emergency response operations in Bangladesh, jeopardising food assistance for over one million displaced Rohingya people in Bangladesh.

Without urgent new funding, monthly rations must be halved to $6 per person, down from $12.50 per person – just as Rohingyas prepare to observe Eid-ul-Fitr, said a WFP press release on March 7.

Asked about the impact of the food ration cut in camps and overall law and order, RRRC top official Mohammed Mizanur Rahman said that ‘hungry people always remain angry’ and Rohingyas would be involved in criminal activities.

‘Yaba smuggling would increase in the region. The UN fund is the lone source of food ration for Rohingyas,’ he added.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the interim government has continued efforts to send back Rohingyas to their homeland Myanmar without any progress, with the number of displaced people sheltered in Bangladesh camps now standing at 1.3 million.

Myanmar’s military regime and international communities, including the United Nations Refugee Agency, have generally been blamed for the failure to send back Rohingya people to Myanmar since the large-scale exodus that began in August 2017, amid a military crackdown on the persecuted community in the Rakhine state of Myanmar.

The number of Rohingyas sheltered in Bangladesh camps is increasing with average new births of 30,000 every year.

The government data shows that, out of the total Rohingya people sheltered in Bangladesh camps, 10,05,520 are registered.​

 

[Saif]

Election to be held by Jan: Myanmar junta chief

Myanmar’s junta chief said the country would hold an election in December or January, the first in the war-torn nation since the military staged a coup in 2021.

www.newagebd.net

Election to be held by Jan: Myanmar junta chief
Agence France-Presse . Bangkok, Thailand 09 March, 2025, 00:45

Myanmar’s junta chief said the country would hold an election in December or January, the first in the war-torn nation since the military staged a coup in 2021.

‘We are planning to hold the election in December 2025 or ... by January 2026,’ General Min Aung Hlaing was quoted as saying in the state-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar published Saturday.

The vote would be ‘free and fair’ he said on Friday during a state visit to Belarus, adding that 53 political parties had ‘submitted their lists’ to participate.

‘We also invite observation teams from Belarus to come and observe’ the slated election, he said during a meeting with Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko in Minsk.

The Myanmar military seized power in 2021, making unsubstantiated claims of massive electoral fraud in 2020 polls won resoundingly by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.

It has since unleashed a bloody crackdown on dissent and as fighting ravages swathes of the country had repeatedly delayed plans for fresh polls that critics say will be neither free nor fair.

The junta is struggling to crush widespread opposition to its rule from ethnic rebel groups and pro-democracy ‘People’s Defence Forces’.

In 2022, the junta-stacked election commission announced that Suu Kyi’s NLD would be dissolved for failing to re-register under a tough new military-drafted electoral law.

Junta-appointed foreign minister Than Swe in December told delegates from five neighbouring countries at a meeting in Bangkok that ‘progress was being made’ towards an election in 2025.

The junta in January extended an already-prolonged state of emergency by six months, eliminating the possibility of long-promised polls until the second half of the year at the earliest.

Southeast Asian foreign ministers in January told the junta to prioritise a ceasefire in its civil war over fresh elections during a meeting in Malaysia.

Min Aung Hlaing told his ruling military council in January that ‘peace and stability is still needed’ before the state of emergency can be lifted and polls held.

The United States has said any elections under the junta would be a ‘sham’, while analysts say polls would be targeted by the military’s opponents and spark further bloodshed.

A joint statement by election experts published on the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance’s website in February said they ‘unequivocally reject’ plans by Myanmar’s junta to hold an election in 2025.

More than 6,300 civilians have been killed since the coup, and more than 28,000 arrested, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group.

The conflict has forced more than 3.5 million people to flee their homes, while an estimated 19.9 million people—or more than a third of Myanmar’s population—will need humanitarian aid in 2025, according to the UN.​

 

[Saif]

Uncertainty and hopelessness stare Rohingya in the face

The United Nations World Food Programme's (UN WFP's) plan to reduce food ration for the Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar by more than half from next month is highly alarming. Originally the allocation was $12.50 (Tk1,515) per person per month for the 1.2 million refugees who fled from Myanmar to ta

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Uncertainty and hopelessness stare Rohingya in the face
Neil Ray
Published :
Mar 09, 2025 23:07
Updated :
Mar 09, 2025 23:07

The United Nations World Food Programme's (UN WFP's) plan to reduce food ration for the Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar by more than half from next month is highly alarming. Originally the allocation was $12.50 (Tk1,515) per person per month for the 1.2 million refugees who fled from Myanmar to take shelter in Bangladesh. But in 2023, due to severe fund crisis, the ration was slashed to $8.0 and from April 1 next, it will be cut down to $6.0 (Tk726). The crisis of fund has become acuter with US President Donald Trump suspending USAID financial assistance.

Funded entirely by voluntary contributions, the WFP provides assistance to 150 million vulnerable people across the globe. With the freeze on the USAID that contributed 80 per cent of the fund for the Rohingya, the following reduction in UK aid spending from 0.5 per cent of GDP to 0.3 per cent in tandem has made the WFP's task to feed the Rohingya and refugees elsewhere more difficult than ever before. From April, the WFP will also be forced to provide for only 820,000 down from last year's 2.2 million per month with food and cash assistance.

The WFP's attempt to raise the aid money did not succeed and Bangladesh's appeal to the US administration not to cut USAID fund for the Rohingya fell on deaf ears. For Bangladesh now struggling to get over the political imbroglio and economic crisis, the Rohingya refugees now prove to be the proverbial last straw on the camel's back. This country has counted costs on account of extra demographic strain on its limited land, friction between the unwelcome guests and local hosts, deterioration of law and order because of infiltration of militants and elements with criminal records, environmental degradation and the combined adverse impact on its economy.

Ironically, it is the big powers which are not able to see eye to eye each other have perpetuated the problem by pampering the junta government in Myanmar because of the eagerness to consolidate their stake in the abundant resources in that country. If Bangladesh becomes a victim by default, it is none of their concern. They have, however, lavishly praised the country for playing the role of a good host to the refugees. International politics can stoop as low as is unthinkable when it comes to serving self interests of the big players. The so-called staunch defenders of democratic values, principles and human rights have no qualm about supporting the most brutal regimes outrageously violating what they preach as sacrosanct.

Now they are refusing to share the burden on a country, which is precisely their own making, not that of the poor host. True, the economic downturn in the donor countries has compelled them to tighten their belts. But the poorer countries have not only done so but also were made to swallow the bitter pill. The UN has been reduced to a toothless tiger in the face of aggressive and selfish foreign policies pursued by the big brothers and their stooges. Thus the Rohingya in Myanmar, the Palestinians in their homeland, the Ukrainians, the Sudanese and Syrians find themselves in a most hostile environment, an outcome of murky politics marked also by a double standard.

The ration cut is likely to have both short-term and long-term devastating impacts on the Rohingya in the form malnutrition, gender-based discrimination and violence within the refugee community in the camp. Their failure to meet their basic requirements will not only increase their insecurity and hopelessness but also make them desperate enough to go the extra length---not ruling out attempts at obtaining illegal citizenship or embarking on clandestine migration and involvement in criminal acts. The prospect of their return home in Myanmar will recede in the distant horizon, precipitating the tragic eventuality for an ethnic minority. It is a shame to a civilisation that claims to be highly advanced.​

 

[Saif]

Yunus, UN chief to visit Rohingya camp

Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus along with UN Secretary-General António Guterres is scheduled to visit the Rohingya camp in Cox’s Bazar on March 14.

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Yunus, UN chief to visit Rohingya camp

Muhammad Yunus, left, and António Guterres

Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus along with UN Secretary-General António Guterres is scheduled to visit the Rohingya camp in Cox's Bazar on March 14.

The UN chief is set to embark on Bangladesh visit as part of his annual Ramadan solidarity tour.

Guterres is also expected to have iftar with refugees and members of the Bangladeshi host community, recognising the generosity of Bangladesh in sheltering over a million Rohingya who fled persecution and violence in Myanmar.

The chief adviser is set to leave Dhaka for Cox's Bazar on Friday morning and return to Dhaka in the evening, his Deputy Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad Majumder told UNB.

Guterres is set to land in Dhaka on March 13 on a three-day visit, where he will meet Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar, one of the world's largest refugee settlements, his Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said.

During his visit, he will also visit the capital, Dhaka, where he will meet Yunus, as well as young representatives from civil society.

The secretary-general has made solidarity visits an annual tradition, beginning during his decade-long tenure as UN high commissioner for refugees, when he regularly observed Ramadan alongside displaced and marginalised communities.

"Every Ramadan, I undertake a solidarity visit and fast with a Muslim community around the globe. These missions remind the world of the true face of Islam," Guterres said in his message.

"Ramadan embodies the values of compassion, empathy and generosity. It is an opportunity to reconnect with family and community… And I always come away even more inspired by the remarkable sense of peace that fills this season," he added.

UN chief Guterres, in a recent letter to Yunus, expressed his hope that the high-level conference on Rohingya and other minorities in Myanmar will renew global focus and help develop broader solutions for their plight.

The UN will continue to mobilise the international community to support Bangladesh as a host to the Rohingya, Guterres said.

The UN chief has requested his senior managers to provide guidance to the UN country teams in Bangladesh and Myanmar on how they can maximise humanitarian aid and livelihood support to communities in Rakhine.​

 

[Saif]

Aid cuts could be paid in children's lives in Rohingya camps: UN

US President Donald Trump imposed a freeze on foreign aid in January pending a review, sending shockwaves through the humanitarian community.

en.prothomalo.com

Aid cuts could be paid in children's lives in Rohingya camps: UN
AFP
Geneva
Updated: 11 Mar 2025, 22: 57

In this picture taken on 22 March 2022, Rohingya refugees walk along a road at Jamtoli refugee camp in Ukhiya AFP file photo

The United Nations warned Tuesday that the global aid funding crisis could be paid in children's lives in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, unless sustainable funds emerge fast.

US President Donald Trump imposed a freeze on foreign aid in January pending a review, sending shockwaves through the humanitarian community.

Huge numbers of the persecuted and stateless Rohingya community live in squalid relief camps in Bangladesh, most having arrived after fleeing a 2017 military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar.

Successive aid cuts have already caused severe hardship among Rohingya in the overcrowded settlements, who are reliant on aid and suffer from rampant malnutrition.

The UN children's agency UNICEF said youngsters in the camps were experiencing the worst levels of malnutrition since 2017, with admissions for severe malnutrition treatment up 27 percent in February compared with the same months in 2024.

Following the foreign aid review, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday that Washington was cancelling 83 percent of programmes at the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

"An aid funding crisis risks becoming a child survival crisis," Rana Flowers, UNICEF's representative in Bangladesh, told journalists in Geneva, speaking from Dhaka.

"More than 500,000 children live in the camps of Cox's Bazar. Over 15 percent are now malnourished -- an emergency threshold," she said.

"Any further reductions in humanitarian support risk pushing families into extreme desperation."

"There's no substitute for the scale of support provided by the donor governments and there's no replacement for the valuable partnership with the United States," she said.

"UNICEF is determined to stay and deliver for children -- but we need help. Without the guarantees of sustained funding, our life-saving humanitarian services, they're at risk. And the price is going to be paid in children's lives."

Flowers said UNICEF had received a US humanitarian waiver for its programme for treating children with severe acute malnutrition -- but needed funding to make it work, and it is on course to run out of money in June.

The cancelled US grants for Bangladesh "are equivalent to about a quarter of our Rohingya refugee response costs in 2024", she said.

Trump's cost-cutter-in-chief, tech billionaire Elon Musk, insisted last week on X, which he owns, that "no one has died as a result of a brief pause to do a sanity check on foreign aid funding. No one".

Rights grants cut

Other UN agencies detailed how the US funding shake-up had affected their operations.

The United States was the top voluntary contributor to the UN Human Rights Office in 2024, contributing $36 million, around 13.5 percent of such income, which accounted for 61 percent of the office's funding in 2023.

The agency said it had received termination letters for its US State Department grants for ongoing projects in Equatorial Guinea, Iraq and Ukraine, and for two USAID grants -- on Colombia and the Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples.

"There has been an immediate impact. In Iraq we're shutting down a programme funded by the US which involved working with torture victims and families of disappeared persons," spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said.

"We're trying to reduce costs where possible. There are some countries where we will have to cut back on some of our work."​

 

[Saif]

Swift construction of a 500-bed medical college hospital demanded in Cox’s Bazar

Additionally, the influx of Rohingya refugees has further strained the healthcare system

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Swift construction of a 500-bed medical college hospital demanded in Cox’s Bazar

Photo: Collected

At least 2.8 million residents of Cox's Bazar currently rely on a 250-bed general hospital, which serves 5,000 to 6,000 patients daily.

Additionally, the influx of Rohingya refugees has further strained the healthcare system.

Due to the absence of key departments such as neurosurgery, hematology, hepatology, psychiatry, NICU, and burn units, patients are frequently referred to Chittagong Medical College Hospital, which is 150km away and costly.

Cox's Bazar Medical College students showed the grim picture of the medical system of the tourist town today emphasising the importance of a full fledged medical college hospital in the district.

They staged a human chain and held a press conference this afternoon demanding the swift construction of a 500-bed modern hospital.

The medical students and intern doctors of the college said although Cox's Bazar Medical College was established in 2008, no permanent 500-bed hospital has been built in the past 17 years. As a result, students must travel nearly 8km daily for clinical classes, which is time-consuming and difficult.

According to the speakers, inadequate facilities at Cox's Bazar Sadar Hospital hinder higher medical education, research, and specialised treatment.

The students strongly demanded that constructing a 500-bed modern hospital would ensure better treatment for locals and tourists while enhancing training and research opportunities for doctors.

Among those who addressed the protest were Dr Hisam, president of Cox's Bazar Intern Doctors Medical Association, along with fifth-year students Asibul Haque, Mizanur Rahman, Ahsan Sakib, Fahim Hasan, Rahat Hossain, and Shahadat Hossain.​

 

[Saif]

Surge in crimes in Rohingya camps in Bangladesh feared after UN food aid cut

Officials overseeing Rohingya issues and community leaders fear a surge in crimes in and around the camps at Ukhiya and Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar because of UN food aid cut.

www.newagebd.net

Surge in crimes in Rohingya camps in Bangladesh feared after UN food aid cut
Tanzil Rahaman 13 March, 2025, 23:33

Officials overseeing Rohingya issues and community leaders fear a surge in crimes in and around the camps at Ukhiya and Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar because of UN food aid cut.

Rohingyas largely depend on the food ration provided by the UN’s World Food Programme as they have a small scope to go outside the camps and earn money to ensure food and other necessities for their family members, they said.

The UN food ration cut would impact their need for food negatively and, as a result, they would try to go outside their camps illegally to earn money and might be resisted by the law enforcement agencies and the members of the host community.

As a result, they feared, the Rohingyas would be compelled to be involved in different crimes like theft, robberies, drug smuggling and snatching to get money to meet their demands for food and other necessities.

The United Nations World Food Programme on March 7 warned of a critical funding shortfall for its emergency response operations in Bangladesh, jeopardising food assistance for over one million displaced Rohingya people in the host country.

A WFP press release on the day said that the monthly food rations must be halved to $6 per person, down from $12.50 per person.

The decision will be effective from April 1, officials said.

‘We have already expressed our concern to the camp in-charge and other stakeholders about the impact of the food ration cut for Rohingya people. The crimes like theft, robberies and snatching will increase in the area in the coming days due to the cut,’ Mohamamd Habib, the head majhi of camp 15 of Palongkhali union under Ukhiya upazila, told New Age.

A head majhi is the top leader of Rohingya community of a particular camp or area.

‘Rohingya people are now getting Tk 1,530 each and the amount will come down to Tk 728. The reduced amount is too low to meet one’s food demand amid high prices of essentials,’ Habib said.

Ata Ullah, a Rohingya community member now sheltered in the camp-1 at Kutupalang since 2017, said that only one in every 20 Rohingyas would be able to manage the needed money staying in the camp by doing business and working as labourers on a daily basis.

‘Most of the people will be hit hard due to the fund cut,’ Ata said.

The Office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner chief Mohammed Mizanur Rahman also feared the possibility of increasing crimes in the area due to the food aid cut.

‘A hungry man is an angry man. If they don’t get food, the crimes, including thefts, yaba smuggling and robberies will increase as they don’t have enough scope to earn their livelihood,’ said Mizan.

He said that the food cut for Rohingyas would increase pressure on the Bangladesh government.

14th Armed Police Battalion commanding officer Siraj Amin, also an additional deputy inspector general of police, also feared that many Rohingyas might be involved in thefts, robberies, snatching and other criminal activities due to the food ration cut.

‘We are not allowing any Rohingya community member to go outside the camp. Some of them, however, use the periphery route of the camps to go outside as many parts of the peripheries don’t have barbed wire fence,’ he said.

The international community must urgently step up and deliver the necessary support to avoid the devastating impact on the lives of Rohingyas in Bangladesh following the announcement of severe aid cuts by the WFP, Amnesty International said in a statement on Thursday ahead of the visit of UN secretary general Antonio Guterres.

Interviews recently conducted by Amnesty International with Rohingyas show how the community people is bracing for the extreme impact of the deep cuts in WFP funding for about one million Rohingyas in Bangladesh from next month, the statement said.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the interim government has continued efforts to send back Rohingyas to their homeland Myanmar without any progress, with the number of displaced people sheltered in Bangladesh camps now standing at 1.3 million.

Against the backdrop, UN secretary general António Guterres arrived in Dhaka Thursday afternoon on a four-day visit to Bangladesh.

Chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus and António Guterres will visit Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar today and join an Iftar party with about 1,00,000 Rohingyas at a camp to be arranged on behalf of the chief adviser.

‘It is not only an iftar but also expressing solidarity with the UN secretary general and the chief adviser,’ Mizan added.

In the beginning of 2025, UNICEF estimated that 14,200 children in the Rohingya refugee camps would suffer from severe acute malnutrition in 2025, said a UNICEF press release.

Declining food rations, poor diets for children or other factors affecting the supply of safe water and health services in the camps could cause this number to rise significantly, it said.

‘For now, we can provide the services that Rohingya mothers come seeking, and that very sick children need, but as needs keep rising and funding declines, families are telling us they are terrified of what will happen to their babies if there are further food ration cuts and if lifesaving nutrition treatment services stop,’ said UNICEF Representative in Bangladesh, Rana Flowers.

In Cox’s Bazar, where over one million Rohingya refugees including over 5,00,000 children live in the world’s largest refugee settlement, families are facing emergency levels of malnutrition.

Over 15 per cent of children in the camps are now malnourished – the highest levels recorded since the mass displacement of Rohingya refugees in 2017.

Myanmar’s military regime and international communities, including the United Nations Refugee Agency, have generally been blamed for the failure to send back Rohingya people to Myanmar since the large-scale exodus that began in August 2017, amid a military crackdown on the persecuted community in the Rakhine state of Myanmar.

The number of Rohingyas sheltered in Bangladesh camps is increasing with average new births of 30,000 every year.

The government data shows that, out of the total Rohingya people sheltered in Bangladesh camps, 10,05,520 are registered.

Rohingya people are still entering Bangladesh from Mymanmar’s conflict-hit state of Rakhine illegally by paying money to boatmen and brokers on both sides of the border.

A total of 53,948 Rohingyas received temporary joint registration from the RRRC and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2024.

In January this year, 116 Rohingyas were registered and 40 other Rohingyas were registered in February in 2025.

There are 34 camps for Rohingyas in Ukhiya and Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char in Noakhali, RRRC officials said.

Border Guard Bangladesh officials, however, said that they had sent back over 15,000 Rohingyas from borders in Ukhiya and Teknaf from May 2024 to February 2025.​