By Rohingya Community in Norway (RCN)
9 July 2026

In recent days, the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, have once again been struck by a heartbreaking tragedy. Heavy monsoon rains have triggered deadly landslides in the overcrowded camps, where children, women and families live in a constant state of danger. International media have reported that Rohingya refugees, including children, were killed when mud and earth collapsed onto areas of the camps. A school/madrassa was also hit, and several children lost their lives.

This is deeply tragic. But it is not unexpected.

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh do not live in safe homes. They live in temporary shelters made of bamboo, plastic and tarpaulin, often built on steep, unstable and overcrowded hillsides. When the monsoon rains arrive, the ground becomes saturated with water, the slopes collapse, and families who have already fled genocide, persecution and mass killings are once again forced to fight for survival.

We are extremely concerned for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. The monsoon season usually lasts from June to October, and the danger is therefore not over. The coming months may bring further landslides, floods, disease, destroyed shelters and more deaths unless the international community acts urgently. For families living on dangerous slopes and in fragile temporary shelters, every night of heavy rain can become a struggle between life and death.

This tragedy must therefore not be treated as an isolated natural disaster. The landslide is also the result of a political and humanitarian situation that the world has allowed to continue for far too long. The Rohingya were forced out of their homeland, Arakan, in Myanmar. They were stripped of citizenship, freedom, property, security and dignity. They remain in refugee camps because they cannot safely return home.

The responsibility does not lie with nature alone. The Myanmar military bears the primary responsibility for the genocide and mass displacement of 2017. At the same time, the Arakan Army today bears serious responsibility for the continued insecurity in Arakan. The possibility of Rohingya return is further blocked when the Arakan Army continues discrimination, restrictions, abuses and failure to protect Rohingya civilians. When Rohingya cannot return home safely, they are forced to remain in camps where monsoon rain, landslides, fire, disease and hopelessness threaten their lives year after year.

Bangladesh has carried an enormous burden by providing temporary protection to more than one million Rohingya refugees, and RCN acknowledges this. But no human being should have to live permanently in camps where children can be buried under mud while attending school. No community should be forced to live without safety, without freedom and without a real future.

When children die under landslides in a refugee camp, it is not only nature that has failed. It is also the international system that has failed.

The international community must act now. Immediate emergency assistance is needed, including safe evacuation of families from dangerous slopes, better drainage systems, stronger protection against monsoon rains, safe learning spaces for children and increased support for Bangladesh and humanitarian organisations. At the same time, the long-term solution must not be forgotten: the Rohingya must be able to return to Arakan with safety, dignity, rights, citizenship and international protection.

RCN believes that any attempt at repatriation must be based on voluntariness, safety, dignity and rights. Rohingya must not be sent back to new forms of persecution, whether from the Myanmar military or from the Arakan Army. A safe return requires international monitoring, guarantees of citizenship, freedom of movement, restitution of property, reconstruction of villages and full protection from abuses.

It is unacceptable that Rohingya children first survive genocide, then grow up in refugee camps, and finally lose their lives under landslides in a country where they should never have been forced to live permanently.

RCN expresses its deepest condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones. Our thoughts and prayers are with the children, teachers, parents, rescue workers and all those who continue to live in fear of further landslides and floods.

This tragedy must become a turning point. Not only for more emergency aid, but for a just political solution. The homeland of the Rohingya is Arakan. The refugee camps in Bangladesh must never become the world’s permanent answer to the genocide against the Rohingya people.

Read more

AP News: At least 5 children die in monsoon landslide at a Rohingya camp in Bangladesh
Reuters: Eight children killed in landslide at Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh
Reuters: Eight killed in landslides at Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh
Al Jazeera: Bangladesh landslides kill nine, including eight Rohingya in refugee camp
Human Rights Watch: Myanmar: Arakan Army Oppresses Rohingya Muslims
Human Rights Watch: Myanmar: No Redress for Rohingya Muslims in Arakan Army Massacret