MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd March, 2021) The massive fire that this week ripped through one of the world's largest refugee camps in Bangladesh, housing thousands of Rohingya people, claimed 15 lives and hurt more than 560, the UN refugee agency said Tuesday.
"Based on provisional reports... 15 refugees are confirmed to have tragically lost their lives in the fire. More than 560 have been injured and an estimated 400 people are still missing," Johannes van der Klaauw, the agency's representative in Dhaka, told a news briefing in Geneva.
The blaze tore through the Kutupalong Balukhali camp on Monday, destroying at least 10,000 tents and leaving some 45,000 people without shelter or belongings. The figures are expected to go up in the coming days as assessments continue, the spokesperson said.
Camps in Cox's Bazar, a Bangladeshi port town, currently host over 870,000 Rohingya refugees, most of whom fled Myanmar's Rakhine state when persecution of the Muslim minority by security forces began there almost four years ago.
