Cox’s Bazar/Bangladesh — A cyclone battered refugee camps in Bangladesh on Tuesday where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar have taken refuge from violence at home, as authorities moved at least 350,000 Bangladeshis out of harm’s way. Cyclone Mora struck the island of Saint Martin and Teknaf in the coastal Bangladeshi district of Cox’s Bazar, where officials said some 200,000 people were evacuated to shelters. In Chittagong district, about 150,000 people were evacuated. The islands are a few miles from the Myanmar border, and the refugee camps for Rohingyas who have fled their homeland. Shamsul Alam, a Rohingya community leader, told Reuters that damage in different camps was severe with almost all the 10,000 thatched huts in the Balukhali and Kutupalong camps destroyed. "Most of the temporary houses in the camps have been flattened," Alam said. Omar Farukh, a community leader in Kutupalong camp, said conditions are dire: "Now we’re in the open air." Officials in...
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