Fire guts shanties in Bangladesh Rohingya refugee camp

DHAKA, Bangladesh – A fire in a sprawling Rohingya refugee camp in southern Bangladesh on Wednesday destroyed more than two dozen huts and a mosque, an official said.

Mikaruzzman Chowdhury, the top government official at Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar district, said no injuries occurred in the fire, which broke out in a camp in Kutupalong. He said 28 huts and a mosque were destroyed.

Chowdhury said firefighters were able to douse the blaze before it spread further.

More than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh from western Myanmar’s Rakhine state to escape an army-led crackdown on the minority group that started in August 2017. Critics have described the campaign as ethnic cleansing, or even genocide, on the part of security forces in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.