DHAKA, Bangladesh: Authorities in Bangladesh have confirmed the first death of a Rohingya refugee from the coronavirus, as infections rise in sprawling camps where more than 1 million Rohingya Muslims have been living since fleeing from neighboring Myanmar.
The 71-year-old refugee died Saturday at Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar, and samples collected from him tested positive on Monday, said Abu Toha M.R. Bhuiyan, chief health coordinator of the office of the Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commissioner.
The man died in an isolation center set up by the government and aid agencies where he had been admitted with COVID-19 symptoms a week earlier.
Louise Donovan, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency, said at least 29 Rohingya refugees have tested positive for the disease.
With about 40,000 people per square kilometer (103,600 per square mile), the 34 refugee camps have more than 40 times Bangladesh’s average population density. Each shack is barely 10 square meters (107 square feet) and many are packed with up to 12 residents.
Aid agencies and government officials say the challenge of handling a wide outbreak of the virus could be huge.
Authorities in Buddhist-majority Myanmar consider Muslim Rohingya to be migrants from Bangladesh, even though their families have lived in Myanmar for decades. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless. They are also denied freedom of movement and other basic rights, including education.
Most of the Rohingya in the camps fled Myanmar after August 2017, when Myanmar’s military launched clearance operations in response to attacks by a rebel group. Security forces have been accused of mass rapes, killings and the burning of thousands of homes.
Bangladesh confirms 1st death of Rohingya from coronavirus
https://arab.news/y5jae
Bangladesh confirms 1st death of Rohingya from coronavirus
- The man died in an isolation center set up by the government and aid agencies
- UN refugee agency said at least 29 Rohingya refugees have tested positive for the disease
Russia increasing hybrid threats around Sweden: Swedish military intelligence
- “Russia has, in certain cases, stepped up actions and increased its presence,” Nilsson said
- Russia was “constantly developing its capabilities and was ready to take greater risks and use them“
STOCKHOLM: Russia has stepped up its hybrid threat activities and seems willing to take greater risks in Sweden and the region, the head of Sweden’s military intelligence told AFP on Tuesday.
“Russia has, in certain cases, stepped up actions and increased its presence — and perhaps with a greater risk appetite — in our vicinity,” Thomas Nilsson, head of Sweden’s Military Intelligence and Security Service (MUST), told AFP.
He added that he believed Moscow would “unfortunately” continue doing so — regardless of whether it succeeds in Ukraine or not.
Nilsson did not cite any particular attacks, but MUST said in its yearly threat review released Tuesday that Russia “has developed a wide range of methods that can be used within the framework of hybrid warfare,” including disinformation, cyberattacks, economic sanctions, intelligence operations, and election interference.
“A certain desperation can set in, where you push even harder to reach your goals,” Nilsson said, referring to Russia.
Conversely, he said that if Russia were to succeed “that can lead to an increased appetite for risk.”
Russia was “constantly developing its capabilities and was ready to take greater risks and use them.”
“Including what I call advanced sabotage. Including assassination plots, serious arson, and attacks on critical societal infrastructure,” he said.
In its review, the agency noted that so far “the most risk-prone actions through sabotage and hybrid measures have mainly affected other allies.”
But Nilsson also told AFP that Sweden’s security situation had continued to deteriorate, as it has in previous years, particularly since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Russia is also the main “military threat to Sweden and NATO,” the review stated, warning the threat was likely to grow as Russia increases resources for its armed forces.
“Alongside resources for the war in Ukraine, Russia is reinforcing its resources in the Baltic Sea region, as it is a strategically very important region for Russia, both economically and militarily,” MUST wrote in the review.
MUST said that the Baltic Sea build-up “has already begun,” but added that “the pace will be affected” by the course of the war in Ukraine as well as the Russian economy and the country’s relations with China.
The report came as Russian and Ukrainian negotiators were due to meet in Geneva for fresh US-brokered talks seeking to end the four-year war, as both sides accused the other of a fresh wave of long-range strikes.
