Sounds of gunfire keep Modina Khatun awake every night in Cox’s Bazaar Bangladesh – the world’s largest refugee camp. She fears that spiralling gang violence there will make a widow of another Rohingya woman like herself, with young children to feed.
By Anbarasan Ethirajan
Ms Khatun’s husband, Bashir Ullah, became a grim statistic last June when he was shot dead after getting caught in the crossfire of two gangs at Cox’s Bazar in south-east Bangladesh. That night, he volunteered to patrol the sprawling camp that the Rohingyas have called home for six years now.
Drug smuggling and human trafficking gangs have turned life at Cox’s Bazar into a nightmare for the close to one million ethnic minority Rohingyas, many of whom crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar in 2017 to escape a military crackdown. Forty-eight people have died in gang violence as of mid-July, exceeding the 40 fatalities for all of 2022.
The violence complicates the plight of the Rohingyas. Their return to Myanmar is uncertain while their host, Bangladesh considers them a burden. Squalid conditions in Cox’s Bazar have also made them vulnerable to disasters, like massive fires and typhoons.
Those feelings of frustration and helplessness are being exploited by various armed groups such as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) and the Munna Gang….
After the truth-shower 