Arakan News Agency | Exclusive
A Rohingya child, aged 12, passed away on Friday after being hit by a “CNG” vehicle, a three-wheeler also known as a “tuk-tuk”, while playing near the road separating camps 8W and 18 in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
Local sources informed the “Arakan News Agency” that the child’s name was “Mohammad Riyaz”, who had recently arrived from Myanmar and was playing with other children by the roadside.
The incident occurred at around 4:45 PM on Friday when the speeding vehicle hit him, causing severe head injuries.
Local residents rushed him to the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in camp 8W, but doctors announced his death at 5:00 PM.
Riyaz’s family had fled the fighting and persecution in “Lapadaung” village in “Buthidaung” city, Arakan state, and crossed into Bangladesh in March 2025, seeking safety, and settled in camp 18.
The child had recently enrolled in the fourth grade and was hoping to start a new, safer, and more stable life, but his sudden death was a great shock to his family and highlighted the risks facing Rohingya children even after escaping the violence in their homeland.
Previously, a Rohingya refugee woman and child in Bangladesh camps sustained injuries after a large goods truck overturned on one of the roads in the “Cox’s Bazar” camps area.
The Rohingya camps in Bangladesh suffer from weak security and safety measures in work and transportation areas. Last January, a young Rohingya man died and another was injured after being hit by an excavator at a construction site within the camps, amidst weak safety regulations and measures.
More than a million Rohingya refugees live in the overcrowded “Cox’s Bazar” camps in Bangladesh, which the United Nations classifies as the largest refugee camp in the world, after fleeing violence and persecution in Myanmar, especially the “genocide” campaign launched against them by the country’s army in 2017, as well as the renewed conflict in their home state of Arakan in western Myanmar between the Myanmar army and the Arakan Army in November 2023 after the latter launched a military campaign to control the state, a conflict that has subjected them to violence, displacement, and forced recruitment.
