As I write, Bangladesh reported 48 confirmed cases - including two physicians - and 5 (five) deaths from the novel coronavirus. The country is on a semi-lockdown for 10 days until 04 April 2020. All programmes for Independence Day were cancelled to avoid any potential mass transmission from crowded

The coronavirus pandemic is now a major threat to global health and wellbeing. As of March 23, about 339,337 people have been infected and at least 14,703 people have died worldwide. Outside China and South Korea, the number of cases are rising exponentially in many countries like Italy, Spain, Ger

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on the Gambia v. Myanmar case directing Myanmar to prevent all genocidal acts against the Rohingyas is a critical step for protecting the rights of the Rohingyas in Rakhine state and also those in the refugee camps in Bangladesh. The ICJ "provisional

The Government of Bangladesh has recently announced an allocation of Tk 10.0 billion in the 2019-2000 budget for rehabilitation of families displaced by river erosion in the country. This is a welcome step by the government; however, the initiative may prove too small in dealing with the huge and c

The world is rapidly becoming urban. Today, over 55 per cent of the world's 7.0 billion people live in urban centres, mostly in cities in Asia. Nine out of 10 top mega cities with 10 million or more people are in Asia. As of 2018, Shanghai with 24.1 million people is the world's most populous city,

The people living in the chars of Bangladesh are suffering. Millions living in the chars in the southern delta and in the floodplains are isolated and largely deprived of everyday basics including food, shelter, health and education. This is making it difficult for them to rise above the poverty cy

In Bangladesh, displacement and suffering experienced from natural disasters such as flooding and riverbank erosion are not new.  These catastrophic events force people to leave their homes and communities rendering annually a large number people homeless and destitute. In recent years, climat

I returned last week from a trip to the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar.  The Rohingya responses against the move for repatriation without creating the right environment in Myanmar should not surprise anyone. The refugees are terrified by the news of repatriation of the first batch of so