<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>Some 4,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have been left without shelter after a suspected arson attack ripped through their camp burning nearly 800 homes, an official said today.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>Bangladesh is home to around a million Rohingya, many of whom fled a 2017 military crackdown on the mainly Muslim minority in neighbouring Myanmar that is now subject to a United Nations genocide probe.</div><div><br></div><div>The blaze tore through the tightly packed complex of bamboo and tarpaulin shelters in the early hours of this morning at a camp in the country’s southeast, refugee commissioner Mizanur Rahman said.</div><div><br></div><div>“At least 711 shelters were fully burnt and 63 were partially damaged,” Rahman said, adding that five education centres and two mosques were also destroyed.</div><div><br></div><div>He said the fire made 4,000 people homeless.</div><div><br></div><div>There were no casualties, and the fire had been brought under control, he said.</div><div><br></div><div>“We have ordered a probe into the fire”, he added. “We suspect it is an act of arson”.</div><div><br></div><div>The UN refugee agency said the “large fire damaged many refugee shelters”, adding it was “supporting people affected”.</div><div><br></div><div>Fires in the dozens of Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh are common, especially during the dry season from November to April.</div><div><br></div><div>But many of the camps are also riven by violence between rival Rohingya groups.</div><div><br></div><div>Police said security in the camps has worsened, with more than 60 refugees killed in turf wars and drug-related clashes last year, the highest number on record.</div><div><br></div><div>In March 2023, a fire in Kutupalong camp – one of the world’s largest refugee settlements – destroyed 2,000 shelters.</div><div><br></div><div>Two years earlier, at least 15 Rohingya were killed and another 50,000 refugees were made homeless after a blaze in the same camp. According to AFP reports</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>