Coke’s Bazar: Heavy rains in Bangladesh have buried at least nine people alive and forced thousands to flee to higher ground.
Schools have abandoned their homes and become shelters from rising river waters, leaving more than a million people stranded in the northern region.
With a population of around 170 million, Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to disasters and climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index.
Annual monsoon rains cause widespread damage every year, but experts say climate change is changing weather patterns and increasing the number of extreme weather events.
“At least 700,000 people died due to floods and heavy rains in Sylhet district and another 500,000 in neighboring Sunamganj district,” Abu Ahmed Siddique, commissioner of Sylhet district in northeastern Bangladesh, told AFP.
Those killed in the landslide were in the southeastern Cox’s Bazar district.
