COX’S BAZAR: Aid workers warned on Wednesday of an “acute crisis” in Bangladesh after a cyclone destroyed thousands of homes and devastated camps housing Rohingya refugees, leaving many without food or shelter.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya live in the overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar on the southeast coast after fleeing violence in neighbouring Myanmar.

Cyclone Mora battered the area on Tuesday, killing seven people, destroying 20,000 homes and forcing the evacuation of 600,000 residents.

India’s Navy said it had pulled 33 Bangladeshi survivors and a body from the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday during search and rescue operations following the cyclone.

Some of the worst damage was at the camps housing the 300,000 Rohingya, whose numbers swelled last year following a military crackdown on the stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar.

“There is an acute crisis of food, shelter, health services, water and sanitation facilities in the makeshift settlements following the storm,” said Sanjukta Sahany, local head of the International Organisation for Migration which coordinates relief in some of the camps. “The drainage and toilet system have been fully broken,” she said.

Risk of disease

Sahany said the storm had destroyed or damaged at least 16,010 homes in the makeshift camps and also seriously damaged clinics run by aid agencies for the Rohingya and the local community.

Aid workers scrambled to get food to the camps, which house around 300,000 Rohingya, many of whom were observing the Ramazan fast when the cyclone struck.

“We are also repairing community structures and schools so that families that are sleeping in the open can move inside until their sheds can be repaired,” said John McKissick, who heads the Cox’s Bazar office of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

Refugees have said they were given no official warning of the storm and were unable to salvage stockpiles of food for the breaking of the fast when it hit.

Abdul Matin, who lives in a camp for unregistered Rohingya refugees, told AFP many had crowded into schools and mosques for the night, while others were forced to sleep in the open.

Outside the camps, Bangladeshi authorities say 20,000 homes were destroyed and another 39,000 damaged by the cyclone, which brought winds of up to 135 kilometres per hour.

The charity Save the Children said it was particularly concerned about the impact on minors. “Making matters worse, there is also an increased risk of disease, especially for those living in temporary or basic housing and with poor water and sanitation facilities,” said country director Mark Pierce.

Bangladesh had earlier evacuated nearly 600,000 people from vulnerable areas and many low-lying villages were inundated by a storm surge reaching four feet. Most have since returned to their homes.

It was not immediately clear how the 33 rescued on Wednesday came to be in the sea, although some reports said they may have been swept from the shore.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2017