07/01/2024 – 9:00
Authorities suspect an arson attack on a site housing thousands of refugees from the stateless Muslim minority fleeing persecution in neighboring Myanmar. A massive fire hit a Rohingya refugee camp in the Cox's Bazar district of Bangladesh, leaving thousands homeless , local authorities reported this Sunday (07/01), amid suspicions of an arson attack.
More than a thousand shelters were destroyed in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhiya after the flames spread quickly in the early hours of the day due to strong winds. The site is home to a huge complex of bamboo and canvas structures, built very close to each other.
The head of the region's Fire Department, Shafiqul Islam, reported that around 1,040 shelters were destroyed and that an investigation was launched due to suspicion of arson. At least 4 thousand people were left homeless. There were no records of deaths at the site.
The Kutupalong camp, considered the largest in the world, houses mostly members of the stateless Muslim minority refugees fleeing persecution in neighboring Myanmar. Another fire that occurred at the site in March 2023 left around 12,000 people homeless.
No right to citizenship
The Rohingya are not officially recognized in Myanmar, where they are discriminated against by the Buddhist majority. They are denied citizenship and other constitutional rights, being excluded from access to medical care, without the possibility of sending their children to school or moving freely.
Conditions in Myanmar have worsened since the 2021 military coup. Attempts to allow the Rohingya to return to the country have failed, while the Bangladeshi government refuses to expel them from the country. Human rights bodies assess that current conditions in Myanmar are not conducive to repatriation.
More than a million Rohingya have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh in recent decades, including around 740,000 who have crossed the border since August 2017, when the Burmese military began a violent crackdown on members of the minority.
Genocide accusations
That year, the Burmese Army began a so-called “clearance operation” in northwestern Rakhine state, on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border. Civilians were killed, women and girls raped, entire villages burned.
Myanmar security forces justified the August 2017 operation as a reaction to the attack on several police stations by the Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine guerrilla group involved in an armed conflict against the government.
The United Nations and human rights organizations condemned the operation. The soldiers were accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity and genocide.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is investigating Myanmar for violating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The country is also the target of a UN investigation.
rc (AFP, AP)
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