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Rohingya refugee camp leader in brutal murder amid power struggle and monsoons

Rohingya refugees in Bangladeshi camps are anxiously awaiting the peak of the monsoon rains - AFP
Rohingya refugees in Bangladeshi camps are anxiously awaiting the peak of the monsoon rains - AFP

The horrific murder of a high profile Rohingya community leader has added to growing misery among the hundreds of thousands of refugees still languishing in sprawling Bangladeshi relief camps. 

Arif Ullah, who liaised with Bangladeshi officials and represented the Rohingya to visiting foreign dignitaries was hacked to death in a camp near the fishing town of Cox’s Bazar on Monday. 

He was known as an outspoken critic of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the insurgent group that launched attacks against government security forces last August in Burma’s Rakhine state, killing at least 12 people, reported Radio Free Asia. 

The brutal response of the Burmese army, who now stand accused of mass killing, rape and arson in a campaign of ethnic cleansing, forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. 

Arif Ullah’s killing underscored the fighting between rival gangs that has become increasingly common as refugees wait in tough conditions to return home, officials told the local media. 

A man digs in the mud after a storm hits the Chakmarkul refugee camp in Cox's Bazar - Credit: Reuters/Reuters
A man digs in the mud after a storm hits the Chakmarkul refugee camp in Cox's Bazar Credit: Reuters/Reuters

The Bangladeshi and Burmese governments recently signed separate agreements with the United Nations for its agencies to assist with the voluntary repatriation of refugees but there has been little progress so far. 

Meanwhile, aid groups say they are racing against time to try to secure the mass of ramshackle huts in the camps against deadly monsoon landslides before the peak of the rainy season in July.

Early downpours have already triggered landslides and floods in the camps, where temporary shelters quickly sprang up on unstable, muddy hills last September, to cope with the sudden influx of traumatised Rohingya. 

Two people, including a toddler, have been killed so far, and thousands of bamboo and plastic homes damaged. 

The camps, now home to over 720,000 people are located on the Bay of Bengal, which often bears the brunt of cyclones. 

“The possibility of relocating all of the ‘at risk’ Rohingya population is very limited and challenging,” Caroline Gluck, a representative of the UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency, told Reuters.  

She put the number of ‘at risk’ refugees at about 200,000, adding that “we are not able to move people as quickly as we want” because of the manpower required to flatten hills and relocate lodging. 

One refugee, Minaroo, 25, said her 40-day-old son was sleeping in her tent when torrential rain last week caused a landslide, crushing her shelter built on a hill slope at the Balukhali refugee camp. 

“It’s a miracle my baby survived,” she said. She and her son now sleep in a temporary school in the camp.