U.N. says 300 people still missing in Rohingya camp fire

[March 30, 2021]    (Reuters) - About 300 Rohingya Muslim refugees were still unaccounted for last week after a huge fire swept through the world's biggest refugee settlement in Bangladesh, the U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday.

Rohingya volunteers clean up an area after a fire broke out earlier this week that destroyed thousands of shelters at the Balukhali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, March 26, 2021. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

"Many families are still being reunited," Andreij Mahecic, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, told journalists, adding that 11 deaths had been officially declared.

The blaze tore through the cramped camp in southeast Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district last Monday, forcing about 45,000 people from their bamboo and plastic homes.

(Reporting by Emma Thomasson; Editing by Maria Sheahan)

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