A massive fire raced through a crammed camp of Rohingya refugees in southern Bangladesh on Sunday, leaving thousands homeless, a fire official and the United Nations said.
The fire broke out on Sunday afternoon at Balukhali camp at Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar district, said Emdadul Haque, a fire service official at Ukhiya.
But no casualties were reported immediately, he said.
The UNHCR in Bangladesh in a Tweet said that Rohingya refugee volunteers were responding to the fire in camp no. 11, and the agency and its partners providing support.
It provided no further details immediately.
The fire was massive, according to an Associated Press team at the scene.
More than 1 million Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar over several decades, including about 740,000 who crossed the border starting in August 2017 when the Myanmar military launched a “clearance operation” against them following attacks by a rebel group.
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The safety situation in Myanmar has worsened since a military takeover in 2021, and attempts to send them back have failed.
Last year, the United States said the oppression of Rohingya in Myanmar amounts to genocide after 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.