Bangladesh: Second fire in a week tears through vast Rohingya refugee camp

The blaze was archetypal reported conscionable earlier 5 p.m. section clip and caused sizeable harm to sections of the largest campy of its benignant successful the world, affecting some refugees and members of the big community. 

Response teams were deployed to support refugees and bring the concern backmost nether control, successful coordination with the section authorities and occurrence brigade. 

Coordinating support 

So far, the origin and root of the blaze are unknown, and nary fatalities person been reported, though 2 radical were reportedly injured. 

“We are coordinating with different humanitarian actors to guarantee that those affected are provided with food, health, protection, water, sanitation, and hygiene needs,” said Nusrath Ghazzali, officer-in-charge for IOM Bangladesh. 

Top priorities see structure repair and rebuilding, arsenic good arsenic entree to cooking facilities. 

The World Food Programme (WFP) connected Monday reported that it has begun serving hot meals to immoderate 2,200 campy residents. 

The bureau volition administer blistery meals doubly regular to each families who present person nary means of cooking for themselves. 

Second blaze 

The incidental follows a earlier ample occurrence that broke retired connected 2 January, which resulted successful important harm to IOM’s Severe Acute Respiratory Infection and Isolation and Treatment Center (SARI ITC). 

IOM and humanitarian partners successful Cox’s Bazar program to behaviour method assessments of the harm from Sunday’s fire, and the contiguous and longer-term needs of those affected. 

A mobile aesculapian squad is connected the crushed providing assistance arsenic needed.  Another squad is being deployed wrong the campy to guarantee radical person entree to close and utile information. 

Increased occurrence risks 

IOM has besides taken contiguous steps to mobilize non-food point kits for affected households.  The kits are being supplemented with blankets, fixed the existent acold adust weather. 

Conditions successful the camps marque ample fires a existent risk, the bureau said.  Last March, a monolithic occurrence claimed respective lives, and displaced immoderate 45,000 Rohingya refugees, successful summation to causing catastrophic damage. 

Roughly 1 cardinal Rohingya person fled unit crossed the borderline successful Myanmar for Bangladesh since the aboriginal 1990s.  More than 600,000 are surviving successful a web of camps successful Cox’s Bazar, which is located successful the southeast of the country.