The sound of gunfire keeps Modina Khatun awake every night in Cox’s Bazaar Bangladesh, the world’s largest refugee camp.

With young children to feed, she fears that spiraling gang violence there will make another Rohingya widow.

As a result of getting caught in the crossfire of two gangs at Cox’s Bazar in south-east Bangladesh, Ms Khatun’s husband, Bashir Ullah, became a grim statistic last June. As the Rohingyas have lived in the sprawling camp for six years now, he volunteered to patrol it.

Cox’s Bazar has become a nightmare for close to one million ethnic minority Rohingyas, who crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar in 2017 to escape a military crackdown. By mid-July, 48 people had been killed in gang violence, exceeding the 40 deaths in all of 2022.

Violence complicates the Rohingyas’ plight. Bangladesh considers them a burden and their return to Myanmar is uncertain. The squalid conditions in Cox’s Bazar have also made them vulnerable to disasters, such as massive fires and typhoons.

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) and Munna Gang exploit those feelings of frustration and helplessness.

“We fled from the Myanmar military to save our lives. I hardly imagined that my husband would be killed in our camp by another Rohingya,” Ms. Khatun, 31, told.

“I cannot sleep at night. We want to leave the camp. I don’t know what the future holds for me and my sons,” she added.