Rohingya camp blaze was planned – investigators
According to investigators, the recent blaze that swept through the world’s largest refugee camp last week was a deliberate and planned act of sabotage.
The fire broke out in several places simultaneously, indicating that it was premeditated. The blaze left 15,000 Rohingya refugees homeless and destroyed about 2,800 shelters.
The government official leading the investigation stated that militant groups started the fire with the intention of dominating the camps.
The blaze destroyed homes, infrastructure networks, schools, medical clinics, and service points in several districts in the Cox Bazaar camp, but fortunately, there were no casualties.
Further investigation to identify groups
The seven-person panel assigned to investigate the incident presented its report on Sunday after interviewing 150 eyewitnesses. They recommended further investigation to identify the groups responsible for the act of sabotage.
The fire occurred at 14:30 local time (08:30 GMT) in Camp 11 of Cox Bazar in southeastern Bangladesh and was extinguished by evening.
The Cox Bazar camp accommodates over one million refugees who fled Myanmar following a military crackdown against the Rohingya ethnic minority.
The refugees live in huts made of bamboo and thin plastic sheeting, and these camps are vulnerable to fires due to overcrowding and poor sanitation.
Between January 2021 and December 2022, there were 222 fire incidents in the Rohingya camps, including 60 cases of arson, according to a Bangladesh defence ministry report released last month. In March 2021, a massive fire tore through a camp in the settlement, killing at least 15 people and displacing around 50,000.
