The U.N Rights Office speculates that some 1,400 people were killed in the Sheikh Hasina government’s crackdown on student protests during the Students-People’s uprising last July. Eleven of ex-Prime Minister Hasina’s former ministers were arrested in August for helping to facilitate this massacre of unarmed student protestors. Words can’t seem to express the horror of the human faces lost and trampled amid the uprising. As one young revolutionary noted while reflecting on what had taken place: “I feel sorry for our state.”

And Bangladesh is in a sorry state. Since Hasina fled to India in the aftermath of the July uprising, Mohammed Yunus, Nobel Prize laureate, has been appointed as interim leader to ensure the country’s effective transition towards democracy. This will be an uphill battle though, as the interim government will have to contend with a lack of electoral infrastructure, high inflation rates, and pushback from Hasina loyalists in the government. At the same time, civilian protests persist in response to the wave of violent crime that has plagued the country since the uprising.

Mahmud Hossain Opu/AP News

With her former country struggling to get back on its feet, Hasina lives off the avails of her years of exploiting the Bangladeshi people abroad. In the United Nations’ report on the July uprising, they found that:

“The former [Hasina] Government and its security and intelligence apparatus, together with violent elements associated with the Awami League, systematically engaged in serious human rights violations including hundreds of extrajudicial killings, other use of force violations involving serious injuries to thousands of protesters, extensive arbitrary arrest and detention, and torture and other forms of ill-treatment.” 

While the Yunus government has promised to have Hasina brought to justice for these atrocities, the Indian government has repeatedly refused their requests for extradition. This will likely mean that Hasina will be tried in absentia. As a member of one of the two leading political parties in Bangladesh that dates back decades, Hasina’s family has close ties to foreign powers, such as China and India. This influence has afforded her considerable political protection.

In the upcoming free election that Yunus has promised will be held in 2026, the students who orchestrated the protests last July will be running candidates from their own newly formed party: the National Citizens’ Party. Given that political power in the country has long fluctuated between two parties, if elections are held, this would be a major change to the status quo. Such elections seem unlikely however due to the deteriorating security situation and rampant violence.

As tensions run high, violence reigns in the streets, and resources are strained, the people of Bangladesh likewise struggle to make ends meet. Food insecurity is a particularly prevalent issue with many households going without food and or potable drinking water. 

The Rohingya who have taken refuge in Bangladesh to avoid being slaughtered by the Myanmar government are especially vulnerable as 95% are presently dependent on humanitarian aid to feed themselves. In recent months, the World Food Programme has been forced to scale back their rations to the Rohingya refugees due to drastic cuts in foreign aid by the U.S. To help solve the food crisis, the Yunus government has been rationing out food and resources to the Rohingya refugees and its civilian population en masse in recent months.

Abdul Saboor/Reuters

The United Nations has been closely monitoring Bangladesh for the last few months. Reflecting on the state of Bangladesh today while visiting the country for Ramadan, Antonio Guterres, the United Nations’ general secretary, mused: “Ramadan reminds us of the universal values that connect humanity: compassion, empathy and generosity. Bangladesh is a living symbol of these values through their commitment to peace, development and humanitarian relief.”

Such values seem to be increasingly under fire in the Bangladesh of today amid rising unrest, food shortages, and fears about further democratic backsliding. So, while the ideals that Mr. Guterres highlights are all well and good, it appears that Bangladesh needs help from its U.N neighbours much more so than it does mere praise. If Bangladesh is to achieve the sort of democratic reforms that Yunus has promised, the time for the international community to extend a helping hand is now.