Rescue workers recovered the bodies of more than a dozen people after a fire at a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, Relief Web reported Wednesday.
According to reports by the Inter-Sector Coordination Group, more than 45,000 people have been displaced and most of them are children under 18 years of age.
The fire destroyed at least 10,000 shelters, the group said. It also said deaths might increase in the next few days as assessments from aid agencies continue.
United Nations refugee representative in Bangladesh Johannes van der Klaauw calls the magnitude of the blaze "catastrophic," saying he's never seen anything like it before.
"We have so far confirmed 15 people killed, 560 injured, 400 are still missing and at least 10,000 huts have been destroyed," Voice of America News quoted Klaauw as saying.
Of the confirmed fatalities, at least three were children, according to Nizam Uddin Ahmed, a top government official in Cox's Bazar district, The Associated Press reported.
"Everything's gone. Thousands are now without homes," Aman Ullah, a Rohingya living in the camp which is home to an estimated 1 million refugees, told Reuters.
Essential facilities including hospitals, learning centers, women's support services and distribution points were also destroyed in the fire, the group said.
The World Food Program reported it immediately sent out emergency rations of high-energy biscuits to the survivors, in addition to the 60,000 hot meals it will provide to affected families.
The overwhelmingly Muslim Bangladesh has sheltered the Rohingya refugees for years, but has been planning to repatriate them. However, many of the refugees are no longer interested to go back, fearing persecution at the hands of Myanmar's military.
