Fire engulfs a Rohingya refugee camp at Kutupalong in Cox's Bazar district, Bangladesh, early Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. - AP
DHAKA (dpa): At least 2,500 people have been left homeless after a fire broke out in parts of an extremely crowded Rohingya refugee camp in south-eastern Bangladesh on Sunday, officials said.
As many as 500 makeshift shelters were burnt in the blaze, which took firefighters more than three hours to bring under control, officer Mohammad Iqbal said.
There was no reports of casualties, he said.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Bangladesh said in a post on X that it was providing support. The fire erupted in Cox’s Bazar camp 5, it said.
Bangladesh has been hosting more than 1 million Rohingya Muslims across 34 camps in Cox’s Bazar after they fled persecution in neighbouring Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Of them, nearly 750,000 crossed the border after Myanmar launched a military offensive in August 2017. - dpa
