KUTUPALONG: An official stated that a fire on Sunday destroyed 2,000 shelters at a Rohingya refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh, displacing approximately 12,000 individuals. According to Mijanur Rahman, Bangladesh's refugee commissioner, the fire quickly consumed the bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelters at camp number 11 in Kutupalong, one of the largest refugee settlements in the world. He also said that at least 35 mosques and 21 learning centers for refugees were destroyed, but no injuries or deaths were reported.
"My shelter was demolished. Mamun Johar, a Rohingya man in his 30s, said, "My shop (also) was burned." I lost everything to the fire. Everything.
Within less than three hours, the fire was put out. The cause of the fire was a mystery. An investigation has been ordered by the authorities. In the filthy camps where nearly a million Rohingya refugees live, fires are commonplace. In 2017, most of them sought safety in Bangladesh after fleeing a military crackdown in the Rakhine state of Myanmar.
According to a report released by the Bangladeshi defense ministry just last month, there were 222 incidents of fire in the Rohingya camps between January 2021 and December 2022, 60 of which involved arson. After a fire consumed an entire block in a settlement in March 2021, the worst fire in the Rohingya camps resulted in the deaths of at least 15 people and the displacement of approximately 50,000 people.
