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Shootings, kidnappings and killings are more prevalent in Bangladesh’s refugee camps, while armed teams and criminal gangs are more brazen.
By Verena Hölzl
Report from Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
They may simply worship freely. The government has denied their way of life and destroyed the lines of their former communities. Then came a crusade of ethnic cleansing that forced them to flee to a foreign country where they were crammed into shelters made of bamboo and tarps. There, they waited years for a longer life.
Instead, a new risk threatens an estimated one million Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar who have resettled in refugee camps in Bangladesh: an increase in fatal violence through some of their own citizens.
Rohingya armed teams and criminal gangs involved in drug trafficking are so entrenched in the camps, aid teams and refugees said, that they are known as the “government of the night,” a nickname symbolizing their strength and the times when they regularly operated. For months, they have become more brazen, terrorizing their fellow Rohingya and engaging in sunlight shootouts as they fight for camps.
The escalating violence has become another scourge in the camps, already plagued by disease and malnutrition, and prone to floods and landslides. Doctors working in the camps say the number of gunshot wounds they treat has skyrocketed in the past year. Local media show that the number of murders in the camps doubled to more than 90 in the same period. Kidnappings have quadrupled.
“Security is now our main fear in the camps,” said Sumbul Rizvi, who represents the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Bangladesh. According to the agency’s calculations, so-called serious security incidents have nearly tripled in the past year, prompting more and more Rohingya to take dangerous boat journeys to escape the camps.
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