Teknaf, Bangladesh: An elephant killed a Rohingya refugee on the Burma-Bangladesh border, when he went to the forest to collect firewood close to the refugee camp on April 26 at 6 am, says our staff reporter.

The refugee, Rahamat Ullah son of Abbas, MRC number 45857, was from block H of the Nayapara Burmese Rohingya refugee camp.

On April 26, early morning, Rahamat with his two sons and five other refugees from Nayapara camp went near the mountain forest to collect firewood. On the way to the forest, the refugees came across a wild elephant. While the others ran away Rahamat was trampled by the elephant and killed, said Ahmed, a refugee who was with Rahamat.

“We shouted and created a ruckus to distract the elephant and make it follow us, but we failed and were not able to save Rahamat,” he added.

Some of us went to the camp to call people. After an hour we were able to bring back Rahamat’s body to the camp where the officer in-charge ordered burial in the graveyard of the refugee camp, said a community leader.

On the other hand three local people were killed by an elephant on the same day around the refugee camp where the local villagers stay, said Safique, a local villager from near the refugee camp.

Every year some refugees and local people are killed by wild tuskers. The elephants mostly come down from the mountains to low land during summer for food and water. Sometime the elephant stray on to the Teknaf-Cox’s Bazaar highway and buses and trucks are held up for a long time, said Kasem, a private taxi driver from Teknaf.