The fire brigade, Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner for emergency relief and repatriation and rescue and response teams remained on the scene Monday evening, continuing to try to control the fire and prevent it from spreading further, UNHCR said late Monday at local time.
“I am deeply concerned about the impact of a terrible fire in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh today,” said Vitorino, adding that “IOM teams and partners are working together to respond to the crisis and ensure the safety and well-being of everyone. guarantees. “
Witness images showed a huge conflagration consuming huts and dozens of refugees fleeing on foot. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
“The fire spread so quickly that before we understood what had happened, it caught our home,” said Tayeba Begum, a Save the Children volunteer who witnessed the fire. “People were screaming and running here and there. Children were scattered too, crying for their families. It is the most horrific incident I have seen recently.”
“It’s another devastating blow to the Rohingya refugees living here. Just a few days ago, we lost one of our health facilities in a new fire. The risks of fires in these extremely densely populated and confined areas are enormous,” said Van Mane. .
According to UNHCR and Save the Children, the number of Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar ranges from 800,000 to more than 900,000.
In 2016 and 2017, Myanmar’s military launched a brutal campaign of murder and arson that forced more than 740,000 Rohingya minority people to flee neighboring Bangladesh, sparking a genocide case to be heard before the International Court of Justice. In 2019, the United Nations said that “serious human rights violations” by the military are still continuing in the ethnic states of Rakhine, Chin, Shan, Kachin and Karen.
Myanmar has denied the allegations of genocide, arguing that the military’s “clean-up” operations were legitimate counter-terrorism measures.