Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh could die due to a lack of food, shelter and water available for the huge numbers of them fleeing violence in Myanmar, an aid agency said yesterday.
Nearly 410,000 members of the Rohingya Muslim minority fled from western Rakhine state to Bangladesh to escape a military offensive that the UN has branded a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”
“Many people are arriving hungry, exhausted and with no food or water,” Save the Children Bangladesh country director Mark Pierce said in a statement.
Photo: AFP
“I’m particularly worried that the demand for food, shelter, water and basic hygiene support is not being met due to the sheer number of people in need. If families can’t meet their basic needs, the suffering will get even worse and lives could be lost,” the aid agency worker said.
Bangladesh has for decades faced influxes of Rohingya fleeing persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where the Rohingya are regarded as illegal migrants.
Bangladesh was already home to 400,000 Rohingya before the latest crisis erupted on Aug. 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked police posts and an army camp, killing a dozen people.
Pierce said the humanitarian response needed to be rapidly scaled up.
“That can only be done if the international community steps up funding,” he said.
Rights monitors and fleeing Rohingya say the Burmese security forces and Rakhine Buddhist vigilantes responded to the Aug. 25 insurgent attacks with what they say is a campaign of violence and arson aimed at driving out the Muslim population.
Myanmar rejects that, saying its security forces are carrying out clearance operations against the insurgents of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which claimed responsibility for last month’s attacks and similar, smaller, raids in October last year.
The government has declared the group a terrorist organization and accused it of setting the fires and attacking civilians.
Bangladeshi border guards yesterday said the flow of refugees leaving Myanmar had eased off over the past day, apparently because bad weather had discouraged people from taking to boats to reach Bangladesh.
Heavy rain over the weekend turned roads into mud, with countless Rohingya putting up shelters with bamboo and plastic sheets beside them.
“People are living in these muddy, awful conditions. You have to get them to some sort of space where aid can be delivered,” said Chris Lom of the international Organization for Migration. “Clean water and sanitation can only be delivered in a structured environment.”
Bangladesh is planning a camp for the new arrivals, but Lom said it was unclear how long it would take to build.
“It all depends on the resources the government throws at it and the resources we throw at it,” he said.
There is no sign that violence has stopped in Myanmar, with smoke, apparently from burning villages, seen as recently as Friday.
Human Rights Watch said satellite imagery showed 62 Rohingya villages had been torched since the violence erupted.
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