Officials: At least 12,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are homeless as result of fire

Almost 12,000 people are now without a place to live after a fire at a Rohingya refugee camp in southeast Bangladesh on Sunday destroyed 2,000 shelters.

According to Mijanur Rahman, Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner, the fire erupted at camp number 11 in Kutupalong, one of the largest refugee settlements in the world, at around 2:45 p.m. (0845 GMT), and quickly consumed the bamboo and tarpaulin shelters.

12,000 Myanmar citizens who had been forced evicted from their homes were now without shelter since 2,000 shelters had been burned down, he claimed.

Although there were no reports of any injuries or fatalities, he noted that at least 35 mosques and 21 refugee learning centres had been destroyed.

“My shelter had been completely destroyed. A fire also destroyed (my shop), “30 year old Rohingya man Mamun Johar claimed.

All of my belongings were destroyed in the fire.

Less than three hours passed before the fire was put out.

The fire’s origin was unclear. The law enforcement have commissioned an investigation.

Almost a million Rohingya refugees reside in filthy camps where fires frequently occur.

READ ALSO: Russia provides fertiliser to Malawi while seeking assistance from Africa

A military campaign in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2017 forced the majority of them to flee; they sought safety in Bangladesh.

Between January 2021 and December 2022, there were 222 fire incidents in the Rohingya camps, including 60 acts of arson, according to a study released by the Bangladeshi defence ministry last month.

A fire that destroyed an entire block in a settlement in March 2021, the largest fire to ever hit the Rohingya camps, resulted in at least 15 fatalities and 50,000 displaced residents.