March 5 (UPI) — Thousands of Rohingya refugees were left without shelter on Sunday after a fire tore through their refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh, officials said.
The fire erupted in Camp 11 in Cox’s Bazar, a border district that the United Nations Refugee Agency says is home to about 1 million Rohingyas, the majority of whom arrived from their native Myanmar in 2017.
The U.N. Refugee Agency reported that the fire either damaged or destroyed some 2,000 shelters, leaving 12,000 Rohingyas refugees with a place to live.
Ninety facilities, including hospitals and learning centers, were also destroyed, it said.
The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration said that while the fire has been doused, the extent of the damage has yet to be determined.
The number of casualties as of early Monday were also unknown.
“Despite the destruction of their own shelters and having lost everything, Rohingya refugee Community Health Workers continued providing support to the community,” UNHCR in Bangladesh tweeted Monday.
“[Ninety] of them worked through the night to provide first aid, psychosocial support & refer people to health facilities.”
More than 700,000 Rohingya refugees first arrived in Bangladesh after fleeing persecution and state violence in Myanmar in 2017 when the military began a violent crackdown on the ethnic minority.
The U.N. Refugee Agency said those who live in Cox’s Bazar live in temporary shelters in a highly congested camp setting where they rely solely on humanitarian assistance for protection, food, water, shelter and healthcare.