Bangladesh Rohingya Refugee Camp Fire ‘Planned And Purposeful Act Of Sabotage’: Report

Government official leading the probe said that the fire in Rohingya camp was started by militant groups to 'dominate' the camps

The fire broke out in the Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh's Cox Bazar on March 5.

Source : AFP

Bangladesh authorities who were investigating the fire that gutted Rohingya camp in Kutupalong last week said the blaze was a “planned and purposeful act of sabotage”, reported BBC. The fire on March 5 had left 15,000 Rohingya refugees homeless and gutted some 2,800 shelters. 

As per the report, quoting one of the government officials leading the probe as saying, the militant groups had started the fire to dominate” the camps. Fires had broken out in several places at once, proving it was planned, said Abu Safian. 

The investigation report was presented by the seven-person panel on Sunday after interviewing 150 eyewitnesses which recommended further investigation to identify the groups behind the incident. 

According to Bangladesh's refugee commissioner, Mijanur Rahman, the fire that broke out last week at Bangladesh’s Cox Bazar quickly consumed the bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelters at camp number 11 in Kutupalong, one of the largest refugee settlements in the world.

He also said that at least 35 mosques and 21 learning centres for refugees were destroyed, but no injuries or deaths were reported.

"Some 2,000 shelters have been burnt, leaving about 12,000 forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals shelterless," he told AFP news agency.

In the camps where nearly a million Rohingya refugees live, fires are commonplace.

In 2017, most of them sought safety in Bangladesh after fleeing a military crackdown in the Rakhine state of Myanmar.

According to a report released by the Bangladeshi defence ministry earlier this month, there were 222 incidents of fire in the Rohingya camps between January 2021 and December 2022, with 60 instances of arson.

After a fire consumed an entire block in a settlement in March 2021, the worst fire in the Rohingya camps resulted in the deaths of at least 15 people and the displacement of approximately 50,000 people.