Seven students and a teacher were killed in the Cox’s Bazar Rohingya refugee camp when a landslide collapsed a school.

The Hazrat Khadijatul Kubra (RA) Girls’ Madrasah and Orphanage, in Block A-3 of Camp 5, was buried in a landslide on Wednesday with more than 30 students present. Eight people died, and at least six others were injured.

Wahed Uddin, a religious leader in Camp 5, said the hillside collapsed amid heavy rainfall around 2:45 p.m., causing an old wall to cave in on the madrasa while more than 30 students attended.

The deceased, including the teacher, were aged 12 to 18.

Abdu Shukkur lost two daughters in the landslide.

“My daughters left home in the afternoon to attend their Quran class. They always dreamed of completing their memorization. Instead, we found them trapped beneath the mud and wall. No parents should have to witness such tragedy,” Abdu Shukkur said. “The landslide occurred when the class was going on.”

Shamsu Alom also lost a daughter.

“My daughter had gone to study the Quran. I never imagined she would not come home alive,” he said.

Eliyas, another grieving father who gave only his first name, said he was part of the rescue attempts.

“I heard the children screaming for help from beneath the wall and mud. We dug with our hands because there was no time to wait for official rescuers,” he said.

Every monsoon season, Rohingya refugee children attending schools and Arabic madarasa in refugee camps of district Cox’s Bazar of Bangladesh face heightened risks from natural disasters. Arabic learning facilities are community-built with bamboo and tarpaulin on unstable hillsides where continued rainfall can trigger deadly landslides without warning.

Mohammed Abdur Rouf, the deputy secretary of the Camp 5 camp-in-charge, said six students were receiving treatment at the International Rescue Committee hospital and the International Organization for Migration hospital. Some were in critical condition.

A 13-year-old survivor at the IOM hospital said her class had been in the middle of reciting the Quran.

“We heard a loud sound. Suddenly, the wall and mud fell on us. I couldn’t move until people pulled me out,” the student said.

Commissioner Mohammed Mizanu Rahman, the chief of refugee relief and repatriation, said all learning centers in the camp had been declared closed until further orders due to heavy rain.

The rescue operation was declared over by Wednesday evening, Mohammed Mizanu Rahman added.

Earlier in the week, eight Rohingya refugees died in overnight landslides at three different locations in the camps, putting the total death toll between Sunday and Wednesday at 16.

Abdul Hannan, assistant meteorologist at the Cox’s Bazar Meteorological Office, said a total of 530 mm of rainfall was recorded in the district from 6 a.m. on Sunday to 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

Rohingya community activist Rohim Ullah called for action to move community facilities away from dangerous hillsides.

“Every monsoon, we fear for our children’s lives because many community-run schools and madrasa are built on unstable hillsides. We can’t continue losing children in places meant for learning,” he said.

“Authorities and humanitarian agencies must relocate vulnerable learning facilities to safer ground, strengthen disaster risk reduction measures and ensure that no child has to choose between education and survival.”

This article is published as Creative Commons.