Massive fireplace at Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh displaces 12,000
The fireplace, which began round 2 p.m., consumed a number of thousand bamboo and tarpaulin shelters, in addition to amenities like hospitals and colleges, till it was put out by Rohingya and Bangladeshi firefighters round 5:30 p.m., native authorities stated. Some residents suffered minor accidents, however no casualties had been reported as of Monday afternoon. It was not instantly clear what brought on the fireplace.
Abu Taher, 25, was away from his shelter in camp 11 when the fireplace broke out, sending plumes of black smoke into the sky. By the time he ran again, all the pieces he owned had been burned, together with his household’s refugee identification paperwork and meals ration playing cards, he stated.
He choked again tears as he returned Monday afternoon to his camp, which had been lowered to a blanket of ash. Other households wandered by means of the particles round him, trying to find remnants of their belongings. “I couldn’t even save a longyi to wear,” Taher stated, referring to a sort of conventional sarong.
The refugees who’ve been displaced are being housed with kinfolk in different components of the sprawling camp or put up in group facilities, stated Regina de la Portilla, spokeswoman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Bangladesh. U.N. companies and Bangladeshi authorities officers have begun conducting an evaluation to find out what number of shelters have to be rebuilt.
“If the materials are available, which we hope they are, it’ll be quite a fast process,” de la Portilla stated. “The problem is the funds.”
For the primary time since 2017, the World Food Program reduce meals rations for the Rohingya final week, citing insufficient funding. Humanitarian help to the Rohingya response has been declining since 2021 and is anticipated to fall even additional this 12 months.
Aid companies and officers from donor international locations just like the United States have for years requested Bangladesh for permission to improve the camp’s shelters with constructions which might be higher at resisting heavy rains through the monsoon season and fires through the dry season. The authorities has persistently rejected that enchantment, saying the shelters don’t have to be upgraded as a result of they’re meant to be short-term.
“I can’t see any future living in the camp unless we have brick walls and steel roofs,” stated Nur Ahammed, 67, who misplaced his residence and his small comfort retailer within the fireplace. Life within the camps had already been dire, he added. Being compelled to sleep below open skies — “there is no word to describe our suffering,” he stated.
In 2021, greater than 50,000 refugees had been displaced and 15 individuals killed after an enormous blaze unfold by means of the camps.
Tan reported from Singapore.