The United Nations said today that 15 people are known to have died and 400 are still missing after a fire broke out in a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, southeast Bangladesh.
What we witnessed in the fire is unlike anything we have ever seen in a refugee camp,” Johannes van der Klaauw, UNHCR representative in Bangladesh, said by video from Dhaka. “
The cause of the fire is still not known. The world’s largest refugee camp, where nearly a million of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority community from neighboring Myanmar is estimated to have settled, caught fire yesterday.
We know that 15 people have died, 560 have been injured, 400 are still missing and at least 10,000 rudimentary shelters have burned down, meaning that at least 45,000 people are without shelter and we are now seeking temporary refuge for them,” Van der Klau said.
The United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it has committed $1 million to the relief effort, but another $20 million is urgently needed to meet the immediate needs.
IOM spokeswoman Angela Wells said the fire caused “heavy damage” and that the largest local medical station set up by the IOM in the camp was completely destroyed.
She said: “The fire has gradually subsided, but before that, the camp’s basic subsistence facilities, rudimentary shelter, as well as tens of thousands of refugees’ personal belongings all burned, it is still unclear the cause of the fire and the exact casualty figures.”
The situation of the refugees in Rohingya is likely to be further aggravated by the upcoming rainy season, which has not yet subsided.
IOM will continue to help the victims by rebuilding durable housing, emergency latrines and vital sanitation facilities,” Wells said.
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