Around 12,000 people have been left homeless after a fire broke out in a Rohingya refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh on Sunday, an official said.
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The fire broke out early in the morning at Camp No. 11 in Kutupalong, one of the world’s largest refugee camps, and the bamboo shelters were quickly destroyed, Mijanur told AFP.
“About 2,000 shelters were burned and about 12,000 Myanmar nationals were made homeless,” he said.
More than 30 mosques and 20 refugee learning centers were destroyed, he said, with no casualties.
Reuters
The fire was brought under control within three hours and authorities have ordered an inquiry into the circumstances under which the fire started.
Camps where almost a million Rohingya refugees live in precarious conditions are frequent fires.
Most of them fled the military crackdown in Burma in 2017 and sought refuge in Bangladesh.
A Bangladesh Defense Ministry report last month said there were 222 fires, including 60 arson attacks, in Rohingya camps between January 2021 and December 2022.
In March 2021, one such fire killed 15 people and left around 50,000 people homeless.
