News stories by Farid Ahmed

BADARKHALI, Bangladesh, Oct 17 (IPS) - A barefoot young man in rolled-up jeans clutches a laptop as he slogs through a narrow muddy aisle between rice fields on a drizzling late September afternoon. He’s rushing to help a farm couple who are facing trouble with their ducks in a coastal village in southern Bangladesh.

THAKURGAON, Bangladesh, Oct 14 (IPS) - Nila Kispotta, a 19-year-old rural girl from the Oraon ethnic community, has become a figure of exceptional achievement to the small, poverty-stricken village in Thakurgaon in northwest Bangladesh that she grew up in. Born into a family of daily wage earners, Kispotta dreamt of a different life. So when she enrolled in tertiary education to pursue a diploma in Nursing Science and Midwifery — she achieved something her family and community hadn't even dreamed was possible.

DHAKA, Aug 05 (IPS) - With nearly 5.5 million people people across Bangladesh affected by severe flooding -- the worst in two decades -- humanitarian experts are concerned that millions of people, already badly impacted by COVID-19, will be pushed further into poverty.

DHAKA, Aug 27 (IPS) - At 12, Mohammed* is an orphan. He watched his parents being killed by Myanmar government soldiers a year ago. And he is one of an estimated half a million Rohingya children who have survived and been witness to what the United Nations has called genocide.

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Dec 16 (IPS) - Ferdous Begum was cleaning her child after he had defecated in the open, using leaves she collected from a nearby tree at Bangladesh's Teknaf Nature Park. The settlement is packed with Rohingya refugees who fled military persecution in Myanmar since August.

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Dec 14 (IPS) - The world has witnessed innumerable images of the long walk to 'freedom' of Rohingya women, children and men. Some trudged for endless hours and days, many carrying elderly parents and babies in baskets, with the women suffering the unimaginable trauma having been victims of rape, torture and harassment.

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Sep 18 (IPS) - Forsaken and driven out by their home country Myanmar, tens of thousands of Rohingyas are struggling to survive in Bangladesh's border districts amid scarcities of food, clean water and medical care, mostly for children and elderly people.

DHAKA, Aug 20 (IPS) - Aid agencies warn of a serious unfolding humanitarian crisis as floodwaters continue to inundate new areas of three South Asian countries, forcing millions of people to flee their homes for shelters.

DHAKA, Dec 19 (IPS) - Bangladesh is weighing a World Bank proposal to introduce a carbon tax, the first of its kind in the South Asian nation, amid fears of a backlash from consumers.

DHAKA, Oct 10 (IPS) - Anxiety has yet to die down over a week after crowds of Muslims torched more thana dozen temples and scores of houses in southeast Bangladesh, leaving thousands of Buddhists with the unshakeable premonition that more violence was forthcoming.