Three more have been injured in the accident
Four members of a Rohingya family, including three children and a woman, have been killed in a fire at an UN-run transit camp for refugees at Ukhiya upazila in Cox’s Bazar.
The deceased were identified as Nur Saba Begum, 25, wife of Abdur Rahim, her daughter Dilshad Bibi, 5, Amin Sharif, 3, and one-and-a-half-year old Anjuman.
The fire, which broke out around 3:30am on Friday from a candle in their tent at the camp, also left three others injured, including Rahim, said Cox’s Bazar’s Additional Superintendent of Police Afruzul Haque Tutul.
Confirming the incident, Ukhiya UNO Md Nikaruzzaman said the tent was situated beside Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf road, which falls under the Ghumdum area of Bandarban.
Red Crescent officials said seven people in total were severely burnt in the fire. They were rushed to a Red Crescent field hospital where four of them died on Friday afternoon.
Joseph Tripura, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, said an investigation had been started, reports AFP.
“We are working closely with the Bangladeshi authorities to ascertain how the fire started and how tragedies like this can be prevented in the future,” he said in a statement.
More than 650,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since August 25 after Myanmar’s security forces launched what the UN has called ethnic cleansing in the country’s Arakanstate.
Many refugees start at transit centres set up along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border before they are brought to the main refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.
Aid workers have warned that flimsy tents and bamboo and tarpaulin shelters set up to house the refugees are potential fire traps.
