At least fifteen were killed in a massive fire at a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, leaving tens of thousands homeless, 550 injured and more than 400 missing in southeastern Bangladesh town of Cox’s Bazar, the Washington Post reports.
Louise Donovan, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Cox’s Bazar, said that at least 10,000 shelters were damaged and that nearly 45,000 people were displaced.
The Rohingya are a stateless ethnicity originally from Myanmar who have been fleeing to Bangladesh since the late 1970s as Myanmar (previously known as Burma) has undergone regular political strife during which the Rohingya people were persecuted.
According to UN officials, more than 10,000 shanty residences have been destroyed with 45,000 people displaced. Bangladeshi government officials and international agencies are rushing food and water to the scene.
“Our priority is to secure the immediate safety, security and protection of children in coordination with the concerned authorities, first responders and partner organizations in the UN and NGO community,” Tomoo Hozumi, the UNICEF representative in Bangladesh, said in a statement.