MANILA – As governments thresh out the complicated arrangements needed to stop the exodus of the Rohingya – the stateless, Muslim minority in Myanmar – into overcrowded temporary shelters in Bangladesh, the United Nations has renewed its urgent call for help to ease the humanitarian crisis.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimated that at least half a million Rohingya have undertaken the long, difficult journey – by boat, on foot, through jungles – to escape persecution since violence broke out in Myanmar’s Rakhine State on August 25. The 500,000 is on top of over 300,000 already in Bangladesh before the latest round of violence, which saw Myanmar security forces cracking down on Rohingyan insurgents – the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) – but in the process unleashing punitive measures as well on civilians, which critics branded as tantamount to ethnic cleansing.
According to a Reuters report, humanitarian organizations helping Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh estimated they need $434 million over the next six months to help up to 1.2 million people, most of them children, in dire need of life-saving assistance.
VIDEO BELOW TELLS THE LATEST ROHINGYAN SAGA, AND WHY HELP IS BADLY NEEDED:
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