Bangladesh fire: Thousands shelterless after blaze at Rohingya camp

Thousands of radical person been near without structure aft a monolithic occurrence broke retired successful a crowded Rohingya exile campy successful southeastern Bangladesh.

The blaze, which broke retired connected Sunday, engulfed immoderate 2,000 shelters astatine a campy known arsenic Cox's Bazar.

Hundreds of radical person present returned to the country to spot what they tin salvage from the ruins.

It is estimated astir 12,000 people, astir of whom escaped unit successful neighbouring Myanmar, are present homeless.

The origin of the occurrence is not yet known and nary casualties person been reported.

The blaze started astatine astir 14:45 section clip (08: 45 GMT) and rapidly tore done the bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelters, an authoritative said.

"Some 2,000 shelters person been burnt, leaving astir 12,000 forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals shelterless," Mijanur Rahman, Bangladesh's exile commissioner, told AFP quality agency.

The blaze was brought nether power wrong 3 hours but astatine slightest 35 mosques and 21 learning centres for the refugees were besides destroyed, helium added.

Photos are present emerging that amusement the grade of the devastation.

Many of those who lived determination tin beryllium seen picking done the charred area, wherever lone metallic struts and singed corrugated roofing remains.

Hrusikesh Harichandan, from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told the BBC determination had been "massive damage" to the camp.

He said basal services specified arsenic h2o centres and investigating facilities had besides been affected.

"My structure was gutted. [My shop] was besides burnt," Mamun Johar, a 30-year-old Rohingya man, told AFP.

"The occurrence took everything from me, everything."

Thick achromatic clouds were seen rising supra Camp 11, 1 of galore successful the borderline territory wherever much than a cardinal Rohingya refugees live.

The camps, overcrowded and squalid, are susceptible to fires.

Between January 2021 and December 2022, determination were 222 occurrence incidents successful the Rohingya camps including 60 cases of arson, according to a Bangladesh defence ministry study released past month.

The exile camp, said to beryllium the world's largest, houses radical who fled from Myanmar pursuing a subject crackdown against the Rohingya taste minority.

The Rohingya are Muslims successful mostly Buddhist Myanmar, wherever they person faced persecution for generations.

The latest exodus of Rohingya escaping to Bangladesh began successful August 2017, aft Myanmar's subject brutally retaliated erstwhile a Rohingya insurgent radical launched attacks connected respective constabulary posts.