A Market in Rohingya Camp Burns Down, Three Dies

Cox’s Bazar, MINA – A market in the Rohingya Kutupalong refugee camp, the southern district of Bangladesh in Cox’s Bazar caught fire on Friday morning.

At least three Rohingya refugees died and seven shops were burned.

“We have recovered three bodies from inside the burnt shops,” said Md Abdullah, deputy assistant director of the Cox Bazar Fire and Civil Defense Service, as quoted by Anadolu Agency on Saturday.

The fire broke out at around 3:30 a.m. local time and was put out an hour later by members of the fire service and Rohingya residents.

The identity of the victim remains unknown, while the authorities are investigating the incident.

“We have handed over the body to the police to be followed by an autopsy,” said Abdullah.

Abdullah said all three of the dead were male and most identified as shop workers.

Previously, fires also engulfed a refugee camp in Bangladesh on March 22 that destroyed more than 10,000 tents in the world’s largest refugee settlement.

As a result, 15 people died and more than 550 were injured, according to a UN report.

LAt least 45,000 Rohingya also fled after the fire, which also destroyed shops, learning centers, Turkish hospitals, health clinics and other official settlements.

More than 1.2 million Rohingya fled a military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine State in August 2017, which has resulted in them now living in overcrowded makeshift camps in Bangladesh.

The conditions pose a fire risk as many of them use gas cylinders for cooking.

In several previous incidents in Rohingya camps, gas cylinders were one of the main causes of the fires.

In the past month, the fire has spread rapidly as a result of the explosion of gas cylinders. According to eye witnesses, the Rohingya people are not used to using gas cylinders. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)