Bangladesh revolution sparks new hopes among Rohingya

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh: Rohingya refugee Shonjida has endured years of boredom, misery and violence in Bangladesh -- but last month´s overthrow of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina has given her fresh hope for the future.

Around a million members of the stateless and persecuted Muslim minority live in a sprawling patchwork of Bangladeshi relief camps after fleeing violence in their homeland next door in Myanmar.

Hasina was lauded by the international community in 2017 for opening the borders to around 750,000 Rohingya who fled a Myanmar military crackdown that is now the subject of a UN genocide investigation.

But the years since have seen rampant malnutrition and regular gun battles in the camps, whose inhabitants hope that Hasina´s ouster will bring renewed attention to their plight.

“We and our children live in fear at night because of the shootings,” 42-year-old Shonjida, who goes by one name, told AFP.

Shonjida teaches at one of a few informal learning centres established for school-aged children in her camp, giving her an unsettling insight into the manifold problems facing her community.

The centres are able to cater to only a fraction of the camp´s families, whose status as refugees shuts them out of Bangladeshi schools, universities and the local job market.

Many of her students are undernourished because declining international aid has forced successive ration cuts.

And they are terrified by the sound of rival militant groups battling for control of the camps, with more than 60 refugees killed in clashes so far this year, according to local media reports.

“We want peace and no more gunfire. We want our children to not be scared anymore,” Shonjida said.

“Now that the new government is in power, we hope it will give us peace, support, food and safety.”

Hasina was toppled last month in a student-led uprising that forced her to flee into exile in neighbouring India, moments before thousands of people stormed her palace in the capital Dhaka.

The revolution brought down the curtain on a 15-year rule marred by extrajudicial killings of her opponents, press restrictions and crackdowns on civil society.