Devastating fire destroys Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh: 15 Dead, 400 Missing

Rohingya refugees are reeling from yet another tragedy as a fire has destroyed thousands of shelters in several Rohingya refugee camps.

The fire ripped through the Balukhali camp near the southeastern town of Cox’s Bazar late on Monday, burning through thousands of shanties as people scrambled to save their meager possessions.

"It is massive, it is devastating. We still have 400 people unaccounted for, maybe somewhere in the rubble," said UNHCR’s Johannes Van der Klaauw, who joined a Geneva briefing virtually from Dhaka, Bangladesh.

He said the UNHCR had reports of more than 550 people injured and about 45,000 displaced.

Bangladeshi officials are investigating the cause of the blaze even as officials, aid workers, and families sift through the debris looking for further victims.

Nearly 900,000 Rohingya refugees have sought safety in Bangladesh after fleeing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state over the years. (ILKHA)