Mohammad Ali Jinnat

Continued influx of Rohingyas, unplanned settlement of refugees and haphazard development activities by many organisations make

Some 6,300 Rohingya people, mostly women and children, have been stuck in no-man's land along the Naikhyangchhari border since August 27.

Health officials in Cox's Bazar fear spread of HIV/AIDS in the refugee camps as a rising number of Rohingyas have been diagnosed with the disease.

An estimated 12,000 Rohingyas crossed into Bangladesh yesterday as severe food crisis and violence in Myanmar have triggered a fresh exodus. Besides setting fire to Rohingya homes in Rakhine State, the Myanmar army and local Buddhists are burning shops, markets and even crops fields, claimed the newly arrived refugees.

Four-year-old Nur Khan cringes in fear whenever he sees someone unknown near his shack in Ukhia of Cox's Bazar. When he comes across anyone holding any object, he shudders. There's a reason for that: five weeks ago, the child witnessed both his parents being brutally murdered.

Six-year-old Jashim sat, dressed in a grey T-shirt and trousers smeared with mud, amid piles of donated clothes strewn along the Cox's Bazar-Teknaf road. He suddenly started running after a slow moving car.

As the sun's first light fell across the hills of Balukhali in Ukhia, a frailly built Mohammad Syed could be seen trying his best to walk quicker with the help of a wooden stick.

Mohammad Zafar held one of his twin sons tight in his arms and kept the other in the lap as the trawler bobbed up and down in rough waters amid heavy rain.

Dark clouds started to gather on the horizon near Teknaf yesterday morning and soon they covered the entire sky. The wind picked up

7:00pm As the last relief truck departs, Shafiuallah Kata Pahar, a group of hillocks, reverts back to a strange sense of calm. People, carrying sacks of rice and packs of food, begin to return to their tents. Suddenly, the hills seem to be dotted with fireflies. Lamps and candles masquerade as shining stars in the sky on a dark night, lighting up one by one.

The influx of Rohingyas fleeing violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state had slowed in the last few days, but thousands have started pouring into Bangladesh again.

The natural corridors for around 50 wild elephants in Ukhia's reserve forest area have been blocked by temporary camps set up for the helpless Rohingya refugees.

Amid several hundred Rohingya people, Sajeda Begum was trying her best to grab some food or other aid thrown from running vehicles on Cox's Bazar-Teknaf road yesterday.

Around 9,000 Rohingya refugees have been brought under biometric registration in nine days after the listing began on September 12.

In Kutupalong camp 1, Nasima Khatun, nearly 70 years old, is being carried using a unique device fashioned out of a bamboo stick

The two sisters can remember quite distinctly how it happened.

Government efforts to bring order to relief distribution in Rohingya camp areas are largely overwhelmed by the huge number of refugees.

Law enforcers are struggling to stop the spread of Rohingyas from registered as well as temporary camps as middlemen and locals are helping the refugees to settle outside the camps.

Tens of thousands of Rohingyas, who are staying either in the open or in makeshift tents by the Cox's Bazar-Teknaf highway, hardly have any drinking water and sanitation facilities.

It was an endless stream of Rohingyas crossing into Bangladesh from the strife-torn Rakhine State in Myanmar. Some had lost all their loved ones while others were lucky enough to escape with their family members.