The World Briefly
March 07, 2023Be It Ever So Humble …
Bangladesh
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A huge fire ripped through a Rohingya refugee camp in southern Bangladesh at the weekend, leaving around 12,000 displaced people without shelter, the Guardian reported.
Officials said the blaze occurred Sunday at Camp 11 in Cox’s Bazar, a southeastern border district where more than a million Rohingya Muslim refugees live. They estimate that about 2,000 shelters were burned, adding that at least 35 mosques and 21 learning centers were destroyed. There were no reports of any casualties.
The cause of the fire has yet to be determined and authorities have launched an investigation into the incident, according to Arab News.
About 1.2 million Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh to escape persecution and violence in neighboring Myanmar. The number also includes around 740,000 people who crossed the border in 2017 following a crackdown by Myanmar’s military.
Bangladeshi officials explained that the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar are prone to fires because of congestion, shelters made of flammable materials – such as bamboo – and a lack of water to put out the flames.
Data from the country’s defense ministry showed that at least 22 fire-related incidents occurred in the camps between January 2021 and December 2022.
The worst blaze happened in March 2021, killing at least 15 people and displacing some 50,000 others.
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