Bangladeshi authorities are investigating the cause of a massive fire that destroyed 12,000 homes in a Rohingya refugee camp.
No casualties have been reported, but the fire on Sunday destroyed 2,000 shelters after rapidly spreading through gas cylinders in kitchens, according to officials.
If the fire was intentionally set, police are looking into it.
The camp in the southeast is thought to be the largest refugee camp in the globe.
The majority of its over one million inhabitants, Rohingya refugees, fled persecution in neighboring Myanmar.
On Monday, many people returned to Cox’s Bazar to pick through the debris.
The fire began around 14:45 local time on Sunday (08:45 GMT) and rapidly destroyed the bamboo and tarp shelters, according to an official.
Mijanur Rahman, Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner, told AFP news agency, “About 2,000 shelters have been burned, leaving 12,000 forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals without shelter.”
The fire was put out in three hours, but at least 35 mosques and 21 refugee learning centres were burned.
The extent of the destruction is now being captured in photographs.
Many residents can be seen digging through the charred area, which only has metal supports and scorched corrugated roofing.
The camp had suffered “massive devastation,” according to Hrusikesh Harichandan of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
He stated that even fundamental services like water treatment facilities and testing facilities had been impacted.
“My sanctuary was destroyed. [My store] was also burned “Mamun Johar, a Rohingya man of 30 years of age, spoke to AFP.
“The fire robbed me of everything,” the victim said.
Thick black clouds were seen ascending above Camp 11, one of several in the border district.
It will be difficult to relocate the estimated 12,000 persons affected by the fire, given the overcrowded conditions of the “mega camp,” according to Hardin Lang of Refugees International.
“This is essentially an acute incident on what was already a persistently very vulnerable and precariously poised population,” he said.
According to a report released by the Bangladeshi defense ministry last month. There were 222 fire incidents in the Rohingya compounds between January 2021 and December 2022, including 60 cases of arson.
A March 2021 camp fire killed at least 15 people and evacuated 50,000.
The Rohingya are a Muslim minority in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, where they have been persecuted for centuries.
