'Can't take this pain': Rohingya mother searches for son after refugee camp blaze

'Can't take this pain': Rohingya mother searches for son after refugee camp blaze

Advertisement

After losing her husband, two young sons and her home, Noor Banu (pictured below) thought she had seen the worst of life.

She made the perilous journey from her village in Myanmar’s Rakhine State to the refugee camps in Bangladesh in 2017, with nothing except her four surviving boys.

. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
Banu adjusts her scarf next to the remains of her burnt makeshift shelter.

Now she fears she has lost another son to the massive blaze that ripped through the Cox's Bazar camps, reducing tarpaulin and bamboo shelters to ash. More than 300 refugees are missing. Eleven-year-old Mohammed Karim is among them.

"I can’t take this pain any more," Banu said, breaking into sobs as she spoke to Reuters inside a temporary shelter on Friday.

. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
Banu points at a picture of Karim.

"I believe Karim is dead, and I may not even be able to identify his body."

The 32-year-old Rohingya Muslim has already seen two sons die by fire.

In 2016, as the Myanmar army poured into Rohingya villages in response to coordinated insurgent attacks on security posts, Banu said her home was set ablaze in Pawet Chaung, killing the two boys – one barely a year old, and another seven.

. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
Akter and Harun pose for a photograph on the floor of their burnt shelter.

"My home was torched in front of my eyes," she said. "I could do nothing to save my children from the blaze."

Her sons still bear burn marks from the fire.

Banu was among hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled Myanmar in 2017 following army operations that the United Nations called a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".

Myanmar denies the charge and says it was waging legitimate counterinsurgency operations against Rohingya insurgents.

. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
Harun looks at a photograph of his father who is jailed in Myanmar.

SEARCHING

Banu is one of around a million Rohingya refugees living at the camps. Myanmar denies most Rohingya citizenship and considers them interlopers from Bangladesh even though they have lived in Myanmar for decades.

She - like many others – arrived with the trauma of the violence back home. Her husband went missing in 2015, and she said she later learned he had been arrested and was in jail – she does not know on what charges. She has not heard from him since.

. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
Akter collects drinking water.

The family stayed at a shelter close to those of her relatives and survived on food aid.

The boys began to attend the religious school at the camps. Slowly, they were learning to build a life out of ruins.

. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
Harun rests on a bed sheet as he poses for a photo at a relative's shelter.

On Monday, Banu said she had just finished with lunch when she heard people screaming and rushed out of her hut. Her four boys, who had been at the madrassa, were running toward her, and behind them, flames were rising from shelters.

"My sons were hurrying home to take me away," she said.

She grabbed her youngest and ran, but as people scurried from the fire, Banu said she was separated from her other sons.

. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
A Rohingya refugee stands amongst the burnt remains.

That evening, two of the boys managed to reach her by making calls through the phones of other refugees. Four days on, there has been no word from Karim.

The ruins of scores of charred huts can be seen at the hilly camps. Some 45,000 refugees have been displaced, according to the United Nations. Some refugees are working to rebuild their tent homes, others search for their relatives. Eleven people have so far been confirmed dead.

. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
Banu reacts after seeing a photograph of a dead body on a smartphone that she thought was possibly of her son Karim.

Banu has approached aid agencies at the camps to seek help in finding Karim, but her hope is fading.

"My son knows the camps very well," she said. "If he was alive, he would have returned to me by now."

1 / 13

Slideshow

A Rohingya refugee boy sits on a stack of burnt materials.
. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

A Rohingya refugee boy sits on a stack of burnt materials.

Damaged liquefied petroleum gas cylinders are piled on top of each other.
. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Damaged liquefied petroleum gas cylinders are piled on top of each other.

Clothes are hung up to dry near makeshift shelters.
. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Clothes are hung up to dry near makeshift shelters.

Remains of Banu's belongings.
. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Remains of Banu's belongings.

Banu puts a solar powered lamp under sunlight to charge it.
. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Banu puts a solar powered lamp under sunlight to charge it.

Harun removes ashes from the floor of their burnt makeshift shelter.
. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Harun removes ashes from the floor of their burnt makeshift shelter.

Banu talks to a relative over the phone as she tries to trace Karim.
. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Banu talks to a relative over the phone as she tries to trace Karim.

A burnt assistance card and relief token belonging to Banu.
. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

A burnt assistance card and relief token belonging to Banu.

Banu stands in the shelter of her brother-in-law as she speaks to her relatives and local Rohingyas about Karim.
. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Banu stands in the shelter of her brother-in-law as she speaks to her relatives and local Rohingyas about Karim.

Salim assists his mother Banu, who has a wound on her knee, as they make their way to the International Organization for Migration center to collect relief supplies.
. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Salim assists his mother Banu, who has a wound on her knee, as they make their way to the International Organization for Migration center to collect relief supplies.

Banu has a wound on her leg treated at a makeshift medical centre.
. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Banu has a wound on her leg treated at a makeshift medical centre.

Rohingya volunteers help out at a meal distribution centre.
. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Rohingya volunteers help out at a meal distribution centre.

Rohingya volunteers clean up an area.
. Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Rohingya volunteers clean up an area.