A massive fire ripped through the Rohingya refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh on Sunday, displacing about 12,000 people, authorities said. The disaster comes amid deteriorating conditions at Kutupalong, the world’s largest refugee encampment.
KUTUPALONG, Bangladesh — A massive fire ripped through the Rohingya refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh on Sunday, displacing about 12,000 people, authorities said. The disaster comes amid deteriorating conditions at Kutupalong, which is the world’s largest refugee encampment, with nearly 1 million residents.The fire, which started around 2 p.m.
Abu Taher, 25, was away from his shelter in camp 11 when the fire broke out, sending plumes of black smoke into the sky. By the time he ran back, everything he owned had been burned, including his family’s refugee identification documents and food ration cards, he said.He choked back tears as he returned Monday afternoon to camp 11, which had been reduced to a blanket of ash. Other families wandered through the debris around him, searching for remnants of their belongings.
For the first time since 2017, the World Food Program cut food rations for the Rohingya last week, citing inadequate funding. Humanitarian aid to the Rohingya response has been declining since 2021 and is expected to fall even further this year. Aid agencies and officials from donor countries like the United States have for years asked Bangladesh for permission to upgrade the camp’s shelters with structures that are better at resisting heavy rains during the monsoon season and fires during the dry season. The government has consistently rejected that appeal, saying the shelters don’t need to be upgraded because they are meant to be temporary.
In 2021, more than 50,000 refugees were displaced and 15 people killed after a huge blaze spread through the camps.
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