Bangladesh is experiencing its largest and most severe dengue outbreak since the country began compiling data on cases in 2000. As at 16 September 2023, nearly 167,700 confirmed dengue cases were reported, exceeding by over 66,300 the previous highest record of around 101,300 for the entire 2019.

On 14 May 2023, the extremely severe cyclonic storm Mocha made landfall between Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh and Kyaukpyu township in Myanmar. The cyclone caused significant damage to critical infrastructure, houses, and shelters in western and northern Myanmar, and in Bangladesh’s southeastern Chattogram division. 

There are about 931,000 registered Rohingya refugees living in the camps of Ukhia and Teknaf upazilas in Cox’s Bazar. Nearly 30,000 registered Rohingya refugees have been relocated and are living in houses in Bhasan Char, an island off the Bangladeshi coast. 

This technical note outlines the key challenges the ACAPS team faced while analysing and comparing data across multiple MSNAs. It also aims to encourage assessment designers and coordinators to consider the future use of their data with the immediate requirements, even as they seek to improve data collection or overcome changes based on the context of the people in need. 

This report provides an overview of how the reported needs and priorities of both Rohingya and host communities have evolved since 2018, when the first major assessments were carried out. The comparisons here were mainly based on two annual representative assessments, the Joint Multi-Sector Needs Assessment and the Refugee Influx Emergency Vulnerability Assessment.

Fire broke out at a container facility on the night of 4 June 2022 at Sonaichari union, Sitakunda upazila, 40km from the port city of Chattogram (formerly Chittagong). The fire triggered multiple explosions, killing at least 41 people, including 12 firefighters, and injuring at least 300 others.

This report explores the reasons behind the increasing practice of polygamy and the protection implications of polygamous marriages in the Rohingya camps. It also analyses reports of increasing intercommunity polygamy between the Rohingya and the adjacent host community, potentially raising additional protection concerns different from existing intracommunity protection concerns.

This report provides a specific understanding of gendered needs and explore how these needs intersect with other dimensions, such as age, disability, social status, education, income, legal status, and religion. But despite the developments, several gaps in understanding shifts in gender norms and practices in the Rohingya community and their impact on specific populations still exist.

This report attempts a comprehensive analysis and understanding of the current information and analysis ecosystem in the Rohingya response. It outlines ways forward, recommendations in building upon lessons learnt, and good practices during the pandemic. It also highlights critical information needs and gaps in the response and explores the impacts of the pandemic on data collection.

This report provides an overview of the potential implications of the suspension of birth registration in Cox’s Bazar district from 2017–2020. It outlines the birth registration process, the procedural changes made since 2020, and what these changes mean for host community children and adults in Cox’s Bazar. 

This report analyses the potential secondary impacts of COVID-19 containment and risk mitigation measures, both generally and in the face of the upcoming monsoon and cyclone seasons.

This report by ACAPS and IOM's Communicating with Communities unit is a large qualitative study exploring how Rohingya refugees have experienced the humanitarian response in Cox's Bazar, with a focus on accountability within the response. It explores recurrent themes within the response and concludes with recommendations from the participants for different sectors within the response.

This briefing note reports on a devastating fire that broke out in the Kutupalong Balukhali Extension (KBE) on 22 March 2021 at 3pm. The damage caused by the fire significantly sets back the humanitarian response and exacerbates the existing needs of the Rohingya, who already live in precarious conditions.

Initial rapid joint needs assessment report

According to SMSD, approximately 10,000 shelters were partially or fully damaged. Nearly all of camp 9’s population lost their shelters, belongings, and food, approximately half of the population of camp 8W lost their shelters, and some of the population of camp 8E.

This report highlights the challenging life in congested refugee camps for over 866,000 stateless Rohingya refugees struggling to meet their basic needs. For people with disabilities and older people living in the camps, such challenges are amplified. 

This report aims to describe key factors affecting vulnerability for both internal and international labour migrants and the communities they are returning to in Bangladesh, India and Nepal, in order to support humanitarian and development actors to proactively identify and respond to emerging critical needs. 

The report and audio discussion - the first in a series of pilot audio discussions on work done by the ACAPS-NPM Analysis Hub in Cox's Bazar - highlights the common household characteristics of vulnerability, with the aim of identifying the specific needs and support requirements of the most vulnerable. 

This review considers all eight upazilas of Cox’s Bazar. The profiles seek to provide a better understanding of the risks and vulnerabilities faced by Bangladeshi communities and to strengthen programming within Cox’s Bazar. They are not intended to measure the level of response.

This edition of the COVID-19 Explained report delves into the lived experiences of Rohingya refugees in the camps, providing more detailed accounts of the problems they are currently facing. It highlights the very real secondary impacts resulting from the combined COVID-19 containment measures and the advent of the monsoon. 

This report highlights to decision-makers the significant need for increased shelter support for Rohingya refugees. The combination of COVID-19 containment measures, temporary shelter materials, and monsoon weather events has made living conditions in the camps extremely difficult.