Chronic risks exposed as monsoon landslides kill 11

At least 11 people have been killed in a series of landslides triggered by four days of relentless monsoon rain in Cox’s Bazar, with officials blaming decades of deforestation, illegal hill-cutting and unplanned settlements for turning a natural hazard into a recurring disaster.

Among the dead were a Rohingya couple and their four-year-old son, who were buried when a hillside collapsed onto their shelter before dawn.

Two seven-year-old boys died in separate incidents in refugee camps just hours apart, while four members of another family, aged three, five, 13 and 27, were killed when their home was engulfed by mud.

Officials and aid workers said the tragedy was preventable.

“This is not just an accident,” Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mohammad Mizanur Rahman told this correspondent. “It is largely a man-made disaster.”

For years, hills surrounding Cox’s Bazar and Chattogram have been stripped of trees through illegal logging, land clearing and settlement expansion.

In the Rohingya camps, forests were cleared rapidly to accommodate refugees who fled violence in Myanmar from 2017 onwards, leaving slopes increasingly vulnerable during the monsoon.

Eight of the 11 deaths occurred in three camps in Ukhiya, part of the network of 33 camps housing around 1.2 million Rohingya refugees. Rahman said illegal hill-cutting inside the camps had continued despite repeated warnings, further weakening already unstable slopes.

Authorities launched emergency evacuations as heavy rain persisted.

In Chattogram, officials used loudspeakers to urge residents living on nine high-risk hills, including Debpahar, Tigerpass and Battali Hill, to move to temporary shelters established in schools, madrasas and community centres.

The Bangladesh Meteorological Department issued a cautionary signal for Chattogram port after the area recorded 330.8 millimetres of rainfall in the 24 hours to Tuesday morning, the heaviest downpour of the season, raising the risk of further landslides.

The rain also disrupted normal life across Chattogram, a city of about five million people and home to the country’s principal seaport. Floodwater inundated low-lying neighbourhoods, forcing businesses to close.

At Shah Amanat International Airport, two international and one domestic flight were unable to land, while cargo loading onto ships anchored offshore was suspended, although container operations at the port continued.

Bangladesh has witnessed repeated monsoon-related landslides over the years. A major landslide in Chattogram killed 128 people in 2007, while disaster records show 279 people died in landslides across the region between 2000 and 2018.
Despite repeated tragedies, thousands continue to live on unstable hillsides.

According to the Chattogram Hill Management Committee, 6,558 families remain on 26 identified high-risk hills, many of them garment workers and day labourers unable to afford safer housing.

“Every heavy rainfall keeps them awake at night in sheer terror,” one resident said, describing the fear shared by families who often return to the same vulnerable homes once floodwaters recede because they have nowhere else to go.

The risks are even greater for Rohingya refugees, whose legal status limits long-term relocation options. Officials say any lasting solution will require broader international support alongside local planning.

Elsewhere in Cox’s Bazar, police said Ali Akbar died after being critically injured in a landslide in Chattarghona. In Pekua, seven-year-old Md. Minhaj Uddin was killed on Monday, while a woman died and four others, including a child, were injured in Doriyanagar on Tuesday.

Firefighters continued rescue operations through difficult conditions. Dolar Tripura of the Ukhiya Fire Service said crews worked throughout the night to recover survivors from collapsed homes, while Additional Superintendent of Police Md. Ohidur Rahman urged residents to avoid hillsides until the weather improves.

Cox’s Bazar Deputy Commissioner Md. A. Mannan said Camps 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 in Ukhiya remain highly vulnerable.

Authorities are planning to relocate 30,000 Rohingya refugees from the most dangerous areas, with 489 families already moved to safer locations.