Blaze at Cox's Bazaar Bangladesh Rohingya refugee camp leaves thousands of Rohingya homeless and displaced
- Jan 20
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 4
Cox’s Bazar, 20 January 2026– RSUR, the Rohingya Students Unity for Right and respond to the latest devastating fire that ravaged through Camp 16, one of the 33 camps in Cox’s Bazar that make the largest refugee camp in the world. Nearly 700 shelters are feared to have been destroyed .Hundreds of shelters at the refugee camp in cox's bazaar bangladesh were gutted with arson suspected.
Rohingya refugees look through the debris of their houses charred by a devastating fire at the camp in Kutupalong, Bangladesh in the early hours of the day .
20th Jan 2026 , 2: 57AM Photo : Ro Maung Hla Myint Arafat
Thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have been left without shelter after a fire ripped through a refugee camp, burning hundreds of homes.
The blaze tore through the tightly packed complex of bamboo and tarpaulin shelters in the early hours of the day and Bangladesh is home to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, many of whom have taken refuge there since a 2017 military crackdown on the mainly Muslim minority in neighbouring Myanmar. Those events are now the subject of a United Nations genocide probe.
At least 700 over shelters were fully burned and no one were partially damaged,” Ibrahim said, adding that five education centres and one mosques were also destroyed. He said the fire made 4,000 people homeless.
People were came out during the fire accident to secure the family materials and Rohingya refugees watch the blaze through their refugee camp . : Ro Maung Hla Myint Arafat
Fires and violence common in camps
Fires in the dozens of Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh are common, especially during the winter season.
Nearly 700 shelters are feared to have been destroyed in the first large fire of 2026, which started around 02:57 in the midnight on 20 January and was brought under control by 4 am. Additionally, some 700 shelters were partially damaged and around 10 facilities including learning centres, mosques, healthcare centres, latrines and bathing facilities, water points and solar street lights, have also been destroyed or damaged by the inferno.
The cause of the fire currently remains unknown and we are assured by the Government authorities that an investigation into the cause of the fire will be carried out
Reported Ro Maung Hla Myint Arafat
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