The heavy monsoon rains, which have been pounding eastern Bangladesh since Thursday, August 22, have unleashed a disaster of unprecedented scale. Widespread floods and landslides have left more than 65 thousand people homeless as settlements were submerged. The number of people affected by the floods has soared to 4.5 million. The regions of Feni, Comilla, Noakhali, Lakshmipur, Brahmanbaria, Chittagong, Khagrachhari, Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Habiganj, and Cox's Bazar—home to nearly one million Arakanese Muslim refugees—have been particularly hard hit. Bangladeshi authorities report that more than 350,000 disaster victims in low-lying areas face food and clean drinking water shortages, even as floodwaters recede. 

Millions of people have been left in dire circumstances due to the heavy rains and overflowing rivers in the east and southeast of Bangladesh, which is experiencing its worst flood disaster in 37 years.