Investigators say Rohingya camp fire was ‘planned vandalism’ Investigators said the fire that swept through the world’s largest refugee camp last week was a “deliberate and planned act of vandalism”.
The March 5 fire in Bangladesh left 15,000 Rohingya refugees homeless and destroyed about 2,800 shelters.
Militant groups set fires to “dominate” the camps, said the government official leading the investigation.
Abu Safian said the fires that broke out in many places at the same time showed it was planned.
No casualties. But the fire destroyed homes and destroyed a network of vital infrastructure – schools, medical clinics and service points – in several neighborhoods in the Cox Bazaar camp.
The seven-person panel set up to investigate the fire issued the report on Sunday after interviewing 150 witnesses.
He suggested further investigation to identify the groups behind the incident.
The fire broke out at 2pm:
30 local time (08:
30 GMT) at Cox Bazar Camp 11 in southeastern Bangladesh and was brought under control by evening, according to reports.
Cox Bazar is home to more than one million refugees who fled Myanmar following the military crackdown on the Rohingya minority. They live in huts made of bamboo and thin plastic sheets. Overcrowded and dingy, these refugee camps are prone to fires. Initial reports of the Cox Bazar fire suggest that the fire also spread rapidly through gas stoves common in the camps.
Between January 2021 and December 2022, there were 222 fires in Rohingya camps, including 60 arson, according to a Bangladesh Defense Ministry report released last month.
In March 2021, at least 15 people were killed and about 50,000 were evacuated after a massive fire consumed a camp in the settlement.