A fire broke out at a Rohingya refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh on Sunday night, damaging dozens of shelters, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday (December 29).

In a brief statement posted on a US-based social media platform, IOM said its emergency teams had been responding since the onset of the blaze, working alongside trained refugee volunteers and the Bangladesh Fire Service to bring the fire under control. The agency praised the rapid response, saying it helped prevent the flames from spreading further in the densely populated camp, according to Ankara.

Local media reports said between 20 and 25 houses were destroyed in the incident. No casualties were reported, although several families were left homeless overnight.

Fires are a recurring threat in the overcrowded camps of Cox’s Bazar, where shelters are mostly made of bamboo and tarpaulin, making them highly vulnerable to fast-spreading blazes.

Bangladesh currently hosts more than 1.3 million Rohingya Muslims in Cox’s Bazar. Most fled neighboring Myanmar following a military crackdown in August 2017 that human rights groups and international investigators have described as genocide.

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