A massive fire broke out in a populated Rohingya refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh, leaving thousands of people homeless. The fire at the Rohingya refugee camp, which started on Sunday, engulfed 2,000 shelters at the Cox’s Bazar camp.
Hundreds of people have decided to return to the area to salvage whatever they can from the ruins. It is estimated that around 12,000 people are now homeless, the majority of whom fled violence in neighbouring Myanmar. The cause of the fire is unknown, and there have been no reported casualties.
An official said the fire started around 14:45 local time (08:45 GMT) and quickly tore through the bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelters.
“Some 2,000 shelters have been burnt, leaving about 12,000 forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals shelterless,” Mijanur Rahman, Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner, told AFP news agency.
The fire was put out in three hours, but at least 35 mosques and 21 learning centres for refugees were destroyed, he added. Photos of the degree of the devastation are now emerging.
Many of those who lived there can be seen picking their way through the charred area, which has been reduced to metal struts and singed corrugated roofing.
Hrusikesh Harichandan, from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told the BBC there had been “massive damage” to the camp. He also said that the basic services such as water centres and testing facilities had also been affected.
“My shelter was gutted. [My shop] was also burnt,” Mamun Johar, a 30-year-old Rohingya man, told AFP. “The fire took everything from me, everything”, he added further.
Thick black clouds could be seen rising above Camp 11, one among several in the border district home to over a million Rohingya refugees. The overcrowded and squalid camps are prone to fires.
According to a Bangladesh defence ministry report released last month, there were 222 fire incidents in Rohingya camps between January 2021 and December 2022, including 60 cases of arson.
After a massive fire ripped through a camp in the settlement in March 2021, at least 15 individuals died and 50,000 were displaced.
