Monsoon floods and landslides hit 43,000 Rohingya refugees, UNFPA says

Monsoon floods and landslides affected 43,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh between July and September, killing 15 people and displacing 9,707, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said in a situation report published on ReliefWeb on 28 October.

The disasters damaged health and gender-based violence facilities and disrupted essential services, according to the report.

How services responded

UNFPA said it kept sexual and reproductive health services running, deploying mobile medical teams and providing emergency transport for high-risk pregnancies and obstetric emergencies. Gender-based violence caseworkers and volunteers gave psychosocial first aid and referrals, while women-friendly spaces and youth centres served as temporary shelters. UNFPA distributed 2,753 dignity kits to affected women and girls.

Rising protection concerns

New arrivals from Myanmar continued to enter Bangladesh, adding pressure on overstretched services, the report said. It also said security in the camps deteriorated, with increasing reports of gender-related killings, gang rape, intimate partner violence and child marriage.

July to September in numbers

65,879 sexual and reproductive health services delivered at UNFPA-supported facilities
153,721 people reached with gender-based violence prevention, risk mitigation and response services
Nearly 140,000 visits to 127 UNFPA-supported adolescent and youth centres and community learning facilities

Why it matters

The 2026 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya crisis is a quarter smaller than in 2025 and still underfunded. Disasters, new arrivals and rising violence are adding to needs while budgets shrink. Organisations working on protection, gender-based violence, health and shelter in the camps face growing demand.

What to watch

Funding levels for the Joint Response Plan in the final quarter of 2026, figures on new arrivals from Myanmar, and how agencies respond to the reported rise in violence against women and girls.

This story draws on a report published on ReliefWeb, the humanitarian information service run by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Image: an illustration generated with Google Gemini. It is not a photograph.