A fire broke out at a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar District in Bangladesh which shares a border with Maungdaw Township of Arakan State on Sunday afternoon.
The fire destroyed hospitals, learning centers, mosques and more than 2,000 makeshift tents and left around 22,000 refugees homeless.
The fire started at No.11 Balukhali camp where the Muslim refugees from Myanmar are taking shelter, in Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar District, at 2.45 pm. The fire spread to Refugee camp No.9, 10 and 12.
“The fire started from a house in camp No.11. Some ten firefighting units arrived on the spot to douse the fire. Every house in the camp has a gas cylinder. Due to the explosion of some gas cylinders, the fire spread quickly. Some 2,000 houses in these camps were completely burnt and 22,000 residents were affected by the fire,” said Cox’s Bazar refugee relief and repatriation commissioner Mohammed Mizanur Rahman.
Atish Chakma, deputy assistant director of Cox’s Bazar fire service, informed that the fire was brought under control at 6 pm. After three hours, ten firefighting units successfully doused it.
Palangkhali UP of Ukhia chairman Gafur Uddin Chowdhury said: “Some of the Rohingyas whose houses were burnt have taken shelter in their relatives’ houses. We have made arrangements for the rest of the homeless Rohingya people temporarily in some schools and madrasas.”
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that over 90 units including hospitals and learning centers were also damaged in the fire.
Between January 2021 and December 2022, there were 222 fire incidents in the Rohingya camps including 60 cases of arson, according to a Bangladesh defence ministry report released last month.
A massive blaze in March 2021 killed at least 15 refugees and destroyed over 10,000 homes, leaving around 50,000 people homeless.
More than one million Rohingya refugees live in camps in Cox’s Bazar, most having fled a military-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.
Sent by Htay Htay Aung (Narinjara)