DRAMATIC SCENES: Photos and videos from the scene on Monday morning testify to a fire out of control. Photo: ROHINGYA RIGHT TEAM / MD ARAKANI
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Pictures from the refugee camp at Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh show a large residential area in violent flames.
Just updated
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A fire broke out in a refugee camp at Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh on Monday. The camp is said to house hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.
Photos from the site show large amounts of black smoke and people fleeing the scene.
Cathrine Tranberg Hårsaker, who currently works for the Red Cross, has worked for the UN for two years at the relevant refugee camp to ensure preparedness. The parts that are now affected by fire are parts she has been a lot in.
Hårsaker says that the camp is 13 square kilometers in size and can accommodate over 600,000 people. It is like placing the entire population of Oslo on an area with the city of Bodø, she explains.
– I’m very worried. Those who live in these camps have almost nothing to begin with. They depend on aid organizations and the Bangladeshi authorities. When they then lose their houses and most of what they own, they become extremely vulnerable, the Red Cross worker tells VG.
– This is a type of situation that has been warned for a long time.
Firefighters, military and police rushed in after reports of the fire at one of the Balukhail camps in the Ukhiya district on Monday afternoon. It is not clear how big the fire is, writes NTB.
Over 1 million Rohingya Muslims live in flimsy housing in the huge camps at Cox’s Bazar, about 300 kilometers from the capital. Nearly 750,000 of them crossed the border after the military in Myanmar attacked them in 2017.
Several eyewitnesses have filmed the fire and posted on Twitter:
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