On Tuesday, Rashidul Islam, an official of the Kutupalong refugee camp, said the fire destroyed at least 3,000 shelters through the camp.
He said, “I don’t know what the exact number of (dead) children is, but the number of people (including the dead) is five.” “At this moment we are trying to identify how many people are taking shelter.”
The UN refugee agency UNHCR said Bangladesh’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner and the Rescue and Response Team remained at the scene on Monday evening to control the fire, where they continued efforts to control the fire and prevent its spread.
“I am very concerned with the impact of a terrible fire in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh today,” said Vittorino, “The IOM team and partners are working together to respond to the crisis and ensure the safety and well-being of all.”
Witness images showed scores of massive blast huts and foot refugees. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
“The fire spread so fast that it caught our house before we could understand what happened,” said Taiba Begum, a Save the Children volunteer who was a witness to the fire. “People were screaming and running around. The children were also shattering, crying for their family. This is the most horrific incident that I have seen recently.”
Van Menon said, “This is another devastating blow to the Rohingya refugees who live here. Just a few days ago we lost one of our health facilities in another fire. In these extremely densely populated and confined areas, there is a fire.” The danger is very high. ” .
According to the UNHCR and Save the Children, the number of Rohingya refugees living in Cox’s Bazar ranges from 800,000 to 900,000.
In 2016 and 2017, Myanmar’s military launched a brutal campaign of murder and arson, forcing more than 740,000 Rohingya minorities to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, prompting a genocide case to be heard in the International Court of Justice. In 2019, the United Nations said that “human rights abuses” by the military, still continued in the ethnic states of Rakhine, Chin, Shan, Kachin and Karen.
Myanmar denied the allegations of genocide, and maintains “evacuation operations” by the military were legitimate counter-terrorism measures.
