Last Updated on January 21, 2026 11:09 pm by INDIAN AWAAZ
Zakir Hossain from Dhaka
A massive fire destroyed more than 480 shelters and 11 learning facilities at a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh on Tuesday, according to UNICEF. “A fire swept through Rohingya Camp 16 this morning, destroying over 480 shelters and 11 UNICEF-supported learning facilities, taking away homes and classrooms in minutes,” UNICEF Bangladesh said in a post on X.
“For Rohingya children who have already lost so much, this is yet another cruel blow,” it added. The blaze broke out around 3:00am in the D-4 block of Camp 16 in Ukhiya’s Palongkhali union in Cox’s Bazar and spread rapidly, forcing hundreds of refugees to flee. Fire Officer Dollar Tripura said two firefighting units reached the site after receiving the alert at 3:20am and brought the fire under control by 7:30am.
Between 400 and 500 shelters were gutted, and four to five people sustained minor injuries, he said. Preliminary accounts from residents suggest the fire may have originated from a cooking stove. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said more than 500 shelters and camp facilities were damaged. Bangladesh currently hosts over 1.2 million Rohingya Muslims who fled Myanmar in 2017 following a military crackdown described by human rights groups as genocide.