Fire in Rohingya refugee camps leave thousands homeless

Police said the fire has left thousands of Rohingya homeless after destroying parts of their refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh.

Al-Jazeera reported that eight hundred thousand of Myanmar’s persecuted Muslims live in a network of camps in Bangladesh’s border district of Cox’s Bazar. A United Nations investigation concluded that the military crackdown in 2017 was committed with “genocidal intent”.

Kamran Hossain, a spokesman for the Armed Police Battalion, which oversees security in the camp, said that 1,200 houses were destroyed in the fire.

More than 5,000 people were left homeless as a result of the fire, which began at Camp 16 and spread through bamboo and tarpaulin shelters, he said.

AFP reports that the fire started at 4:40 pm and was brought under control by 6:30 pm.

Bangladesh government official Muhammad Shamsud Douza said the fire had been put out by emergency workers. No cause for the fire has been determined, he said.

Myanmar’s Rohingya refugees have for years sought refuge in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. In response to calls from aid organizations, Indonesia allowed a boat with Rohingya refugees stranded off its coast last month to dock after it became stranded.

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