Hundreds of Rohingya, including women with babies on their shoulders, stood in torrential rain children in the hope of getting aid packages thrown from trucks at Balukhali in the Bangladeshi city of Cox’s Bazar bordering Myanmar. Food, tarpaulin and clothes are being distributed by local Bangladeshis. Al Jazeera reported that there was chaos as the rain added to the misery at Balukhali, where a large number of Rohingya who have fled persecution in Myanmar have taken refuge. Highlighting the grave conditions for the Rohingya refugees, aid agencies reported on September 15 that at least two children and one woman were killed in a stampede that broke out as aid was being distributed. More than half of the estimated 412,000 Rohingya, who have escaped Myanmar’s military crackdown, live in makeshift sites without proper shelter, clean drinking water and sanitation. Myanmar’s military launched a bloody crackdown on ethnic Rohingya, who are mostly Muslims, after an armed Rohingya group carried out a deadly attack against the army. Since then the army has killed more than 400 people and driven out hundreds of thousands from the western Rakhine state, creating one of the biggest refugee crises of recent times.
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