CHITTAGONG: Dozens of Rohingya refugees are being treated in a Bangladesh hospital for bullet wounds and blast injuries suffered in their flight from persecution in Rakhine state in Myanmar.
Many have lost limbs and eyes in land mine explosions, and doctors at Chittagong Medical College Hospital, the largest government hospital in the southeast Bangladesh, are struggling to cope.
One of their patients, Yusuf Nobi, 32, a day laborer from Yazdina Para, lost both legs and both eyes in a land mine blast. “I don't want to live anymore,” he said. “Please kill me.”
Yusuf’s wife Rajiv Begum, 26, is distraught. “Our family is in crisis,” she said. “We don’t know what to do.”
Her husband suffered his injuries when he stepped on a mine as the family crossed the border from Myanmar to Bangladesh.
“We were all crossing the border in a group,” Rajiv said. “There was my mother, two brothers, my husband, two of my sons and a daughter. We were about to reach the Bangladesh border. On the other side, we could see the people of Bangladesh.
“All of a sudden there was a big explosion. We got scattered and ran. A few minutes later, when we reached the Bangladesh border, I noticed that my husband was missing. My brothers went back and found him with a severe mine injury, he lost both his legs instantly.
“We put him into a bamboo basket and rushed to the local health center of Medicins Sans Frontieres. Later Yusuf was taken here by ambulance.”
Next to Yusuf’s bed is another refugee, Mohammad Hossain, who also lost his leg in a land mine blast. “While crossing the border, I stepped on one of the landmines planted by the Myanmar Army,” he said. “The explosion threw me around 10 feet up in the air. I lost consciousness when I hit the ground and later found myself in a local health complex inside Bangladesh.”
Hossain’s wife and children narrowly escaped. His wife now looks after the family and tends to her husband at the hospital.
Dr. Tanvir Ahmed, a duty doctor at the hospital, said he had never seen such a large number of patients injured by land mines and bullets.
“In the last two weeks alone, we have treated around 50 Rohingya Muslims, all of them with gunshot wounds and mine explosion injuries. Two of them lost both their legs, two lost both their eyes,” he said.
About 42 Rohingya refugees with serious injuries are being treated at the hospital, and most of them are at risk of losing at least one leg, he said.
“Our hospital is already over-burdened and we cannot accommodate more beds in the wards for new patients. Many of the patients are kept in the corridor and the hospital is trying its best to provide them with medicines and treatment.”
Hospital overwhelmed by Rohingya with lost limbs and bullet wounds
Hospital overwhelmed by Rohingya with lost limbs and bullet wounds
Russia hits Ukraine with drones, missiles, kills at least 10 in Kharkiv
- Zelensky said that Russia launched 480 drones and 29 missiles targeting the energy sector and railway infrastructure
- “There should be a response from partners to these savage strikes against life“
KHARKIV, Ukraine: Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles at Ukraine overnight on Saturday, damaging infrastructure and killing at least 10 people, including two children, in the northeast city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia launched 480 drones and 29 missiles targeting the energy sector and railway infrastructure across the country.
“There should be a response from partners to these savage strikes against life,” Zelensky said on the Telegram app.
“Russia has not abandoned its attempts to destroy Ukraine’s residential and critical infrastructure, and therefore support should continue,” Zelensky said, urging partners to continue air defense and weapons supplies.
Ukrainian air defense units shot down 453 drones and 19 missiles, the air force said. But nine missiles and 26 attack drones hit 22 sites, it said.
BALLISTIC MISSILE SLAMS INTO RESIDENTIAL BUILDING
The city of Kharkiv was targeted by both Russian drones and missiles, and 10 people, including two children, were killed after a Russian ballistic missile slammed into a five-story residential building, Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
“When we arrived here 20 minutes after the explosion, I thought I was going to have a stroke. I couldn’t string two words together, and my legs were buckling,” Hanna, a resident of the destroyed building, told Reuters.
“It’s good that I wasn’t there with my child and that my father was with me. It was ordinary people who lived there. What were they targeting?“
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces carried out massive overnight strikes on Ukrainian military-industrial complexes, military airfields and energy facilities, the Interfax news agency reported.
In Kharkiv, 15 people were also wounded, and 19 residential buildings were damaged by the Russian attacks, Syniehubov said.
Commercial and administrative buildings, electricity distribution lines, and cars were also hit, he said.
In Kyiv, three people were injured, and the heating was knocked out in 2,806 residential apartment buildings in four districts across the capital after Russian strikes hit an energy infrastructure facility, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.
National grid operator Ukrenergo said that emergency power cuts were introduced in seven regions following the Russian attacks.
Ukrainian officials said that Russia also attacked four railway stations and other railway infrastructure in central Ukraine and port infrastructure in the southern Odesa region, setting on fire containers with vegetable oil and damaging a grain warehouse.
