At least fifty-five people have died in Bangladesh following floods and landslides caused by torrential rains, which have also claimed more than a million victims since the beginning of August. authorities announced Sunday, August 13.
Twenty-one dead were counted in Cox’s Bazar, nineteen in Chittagong, ten in Bandarban, and five in Rangamati, according to officials in the areas most affected by the bad weather. The United Kingdom announced on Sunday that it was releasing 250,000 pounds sterling (289,000 euros) “to meet urgent needs. »
A blow for the hundreds of thousands of refugees
“This is some of the heaviest rainfall in recent years,” Bangladesh Meteorology Department Chief Azizur Rahman said, adding that 312 millimeters of rain was recorded on August 7 alone.
“In Cox’s Bazar, about 600,000 people have been affected by the rains,” district administrator Shaheen Ibrahim, which hosts a million Rohingya refugees who fled the crackdown in Burma, told Agence France-Presse. Refugee Commissioner Mizanur Rahman said four Rohingyas were among the victims, including a child and his mother who were buried in a landslide. “We moved about two thousand people to safe places,” the commissioner explained.
“The monsoon floods have dealt a further blow to hundreds of thousands of refugees who were already recovering from the fury and destruction of Cyclone Mocha last May,” said national director Ashish Damle on Saturday. Oxfam NGO in Bangladesh.
Hundreds of villages were submerged in Chittagong, the country’s second city. “The rain damaged at least five thousand houses with thatched roofs,” local administrator Abul Bashar Mohammed Fakhruzzaman said. Transport was stopped for a few days between Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar and the railway tracks were damaged, he detailed. In the area, five people are missing, local government official Shahina Sultana said. She also assured that “the government is doing everything possible to help the population”, specifying that the authorities of the country have sent food and aid to this region which is the most affected.
Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent due to global warming
The summer monsoon brings South Asia about 80% of its annual rainfall. Every year it causes death and destruction caused by floods and landslides.
Extreme weather events (cyclones, heat waves, floods, droughts, etc.) are natural phenomena. But global warming caused by human-generated greenhouse gas emissions is increasing their magnitude and frequency, experts say.