At least 15 killed, 50,000 flee after massive fire at Rohingya camp in Bangladesh
- More than 900 shanties – home to about 7,400 refugees – have been gutted, preliminary assessment shows
- The blaze appears to have started at one of the refugee camps at Cox’s Bazar before spreading to three others
A huge blaze that ripped through a sprawling Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh has forced at least 50,000 people to flee and left at least 15 people feared dead, officials and aid workers said, in the biggest fire to hit the shanty settlement to date.
Nearly one million of the persecuted Muslim minority from Myanmar – many of whom fled a military crackdown in their homeland in 2017 – live in cramped and squalid conditions at the camps in the southeastern Cox’s Bazar district. It was the third fire to hit the camps in four days.
Officials said the latest blaze appeared to have started on Monday in one of the 34 camps – which span about 8,000 acres of land – before spreading to three other camps, with refugees fleeing the shanties with whatever belongings they could carry.
Thick columns of smoke could be seen billowing from blazing shanties in video shared on social media, as hundreds of firefighters and aid workers battled the flames and pulled refugees to safety.
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At least 15 dead, 400 missing, 50,000 displaced after fire in Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh
Firefighters brought the blaze under control around midnight, with the Refugees International saying at least 50,000 people fled their shanties as the blaze reduced thousands of shelters made of tarp and bamboo to ashes.