A massive fire ripped through a Rohingya refugee camp – believed to be the world's largest refugee camp – in Bangladesh's southern district of Cox's Bazar on Sunday, March 5, leaving around 12,000 people homeless, reports indicate. Authorities in Bangladesh are investigating the cause of the massive fire though no casualties have been reported, Police are investigating if the fire was an act of sabotage and one man has been detained, local media reported. Most of its more than one million residents, Rohingya refugees, had fled persecution in neighbouring Myanmar. The blaze which was brought under control within three hours started at about 14:45 local time Sunday (08:45 GMT) and quickly tore through the bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelters, an official said. Hrusikesh Harichandan, from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told the BBC that basic services such as water centres and testing facilities had been affected. Delivering basic services to people in other parts of the camp, it is reported, is a challenge because many services - health clinics, schools - were destroyed. A Bangladesh defence ministry report released in February indicates that between January 2021 and December 2022, there were 222 fire incidents in the Rohingya camps including 60 cases of arson. In March 2021, at least 15 people were killed and 50,000 others displaced after a huge fire tore through a camp in the settlement. The refugee camp houses people who fled from Myanmar following a military crackdown against the Rohingya ethnic minority. The Rohingya are Muslims in largely Buddhist Myanmar. The latest exodus of Rohingya escaping to Bangladesh began in August 2017, after Myanmar's military retaliated when a Rohingya insurgent group launched attacks on several police posts.
