Fire ravages Rohingya camp in Bangladesh; thousands homeless

A deadly fire destroyed 2,000 shelters at a Rohingya refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh on March 6, leaving around 12,000 people homeless, according to official estimates. The fire, which broke out on Sunday afternoon at one of the camps of the world's largest refugee settlements- Kutupalong, rapidly engulfed bamboo and tarpaulin shelters and displaced the Myanmar nationals who have been living under difficult conditions since the military crackdown of 2017.  ...read more

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Published on Mar 06, 2023 04:59 PM IST

A view of the fire that ravaged Cox Bazar district's Rohingya camp. According to officials, the fire destroyed 2,000 shelters, leaving around 12,000 people homeless,  (Ro Yassin Abdumonab / REUTERS)

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Fire officials try to douse the fire that overtook the camp on Sunday. While the blaze was brought under control in less than three hours, it was not clear how the fire started. The authorities have ordered an investigation.  (Mahmud Hossain Opu / AP)

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Fires are common in such camps where nearly one million Rohingya refugees live in squalid conditions. Most of them fled a military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state in 2017 and took refuge in Bangladesh. A Bangladesh defence ministry report last month said that between January 2021 and December 2022, there were 222 fire incidents in the Rohingya camps -- including 60 cases of arson, AFP reported. (Mahmud Hossain Opu / AP)

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Rohingya refugee boys seen salvaging a gas cylinder after the fire. At least 35 mosques and 21 learning centres for the refugees were also destroyed, though there were no reports of any injuries or deaths, officials added. (Mahmud Hossain Opu / AP)

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Rohingya refugees seen around fuming debris after a major fire at the Balukhali camp at Ukhiya in Cox's Bazar district, on March 5. The fire raced through a crammed camp of Rohingya refugees, leaving thousands homeless, a fire official and the United Nations told AP.(Mahmud Hossain Opu / AP)

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A Rohingya refugee seen trying to douse a major fire at the Balukhali camp in Ukhiya. The fire broke out around 2:45pm at camp number 11 in Kutupalong, one of the world's largest refugee settlements, and rapidly engulfed the bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelters, Mijanur Rahman, Bangladesh's refugee commissioner, told AFP. (Mahmud Hossain Opu / AP)

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A Rohingya refugee family stands near their shelter that was destroyed by the fire. "My shelter was gutted. My shop was also burnt," said Mamun Johar, a 30-year-old Rohingya man. "The fire took everything from me, everything." (Ro Yassin Abdumonab / REUTERS)

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A view of the Rohingya refugee camp that was destroyed after a fire broke out in Cox’s Bazar on March 5. According to AP, last year, the United States said the oppression of Rohingya in Myanmar amounts to genocide after US authorities confirmed accounts of mass atrocities against civilians by the military in a systematic campaign against the ethnic minority. Muslim Rohingya face widespread discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where most are denied citizenship and many other rights.(Ro Yassin Abdumonab / REUTERS)