Six refugees injured by lightning strikes at Balukhali camp

Six refugees injured by lightning strikes at Balukhali camp
by -
Kaladan Press

Six people, including children, were injured during a lightning storm that struck an unofficial refugee camp in Bangladesh on June 7, according to camp residents.

As the storm lashed the makeshift shelters in Balukhali camp, some of the residents were injured around 5am, said Jafar, one of the refugees living in Balukhali.

The six wounded were identified as Saber, 6, Mohammad Shahin, 4, Shahena Begum, 25, Ismatara Begum 26, Ebadullah, 24 and Noor Ahmed, 45.

The wounded were taken to a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) field clinic, said Majee Saber Hussain, another resident of Balukhali camp. One of the men was then sent onward to a government hospital in Cox’s Bazar with critical injuries, he added.

At the end of May, Cyclone Mora reportedly destroyed up to 80% of the shelters in Balukhali camp. Many of the shelters at the camp, which is not officially recognized and so does not receive humanitarian aid, are little more than flimsy huts built of scavenged materials.

The two registered camps and outcropping of unofficial refugee settlements around Cox’s Bazar are thought to shelter between 300,000 to 500,000 Rohingya refugees.

July 6, 2023
37 individuals who were identified as political prisoners and were being held at Kyaiksakaw...
June 15, 2023
A tragic incident took place in Block H-32 of Ukhia Rohingya camp in Cox's Bazar on June 13,...
June 7, 2023
Family members are deeply worried because the political prisoners held in Kyaiksakaw Prison,...
August 19, 2021
Out of 30,000 vaccinations provided in Maungdaw township this month, almost none have been given...