UN: monsoon rains a threat to 100,000 Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh

UNITED NATIONS, June 15 (Xinhua) — Strong winds and torrential monsoon rains are threatening the health and safety of thousands of children in Rohingya refugee camps and makeshift settlements in the Cox’s Bar region camps in southernmost Bangladesh, a UN spokesman said on Thursday.
About “200,000 Rohingya refugees — over 50 percent children — are currently exposed to the dual-dangers of flooding and landslides, with 25,000 at highest risk,” Deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters, citing the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“Rehabilitation efforts are underway to fix the almost 900 shelters, 15 water points, over 200 latrines, two UNICEF-supported health facilities and two food distribution sites which have been damaged or destroyed in the camps,” he said.
“Several learning centers and Child and Women Friendly Spaces run by UNICEF and its partners have been temporarily closed because of the bad weather,” Haq said. “The arrival of the monsoon rain also increases health risks within the camps, particularly water borne diseases such as acute watery diarrhea and cholera.”
For months now, UN agencies and their partners have been warning of the threat posed by the monsoon season, which runs from June to September.
Some 700,000 Rohingya refugees have fled their homes in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State into the Cox’s Bazar region of Bangladesh, 670,000 of them since last August alone, mainly in the sprawling, hilly Kutupalong camp. Enditem
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