Within two hours the flames destroyed 1,200 shelters in one of the world’s biggest settlements
A massive fire has devastated a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, leaving thousands of people homeless, police have said.
“About 1,200 houses were burnt in the fire,” a spokesman for the Armed Police Battalion, Kamran Hossain, told AFP on Sunday.
The fire started at 4.40pm local time and was brought under control at around 6.30pm, the law enforcement officer said – but the two hours was enough to leave more than 5,000 people homeless as most of the shelters were made of bamboo and tarpaulin, highly flammable materials.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) Bangladesh said that, after receiving news of a “sudden fire” at Camp 16 in the Cox’s Bazar border district, it “immediately deployed teams,” including medics, to protect the refugees.The cause of the fire is yet to be established.
Massive fire sweeps through Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, destroying hundreds of homes, according to officials and witnesses, though there were no immediate reports of casualties.
A Rohingya refugee said "Everything is gone. Many are without homes"#RohingyaRefugee pic.twitter.com/saZtc6FCt7— SM Danish (@SMDanish313) January 9, 2022