Rohingya Refugee Crisis

Two Kachin soldiers stand guard opposite a Chinese dam in northern Kachin state, where more than 85,000 people have been displaced by conflict. Photo: IRIN/Steve Sandford
IRIN/Steve Sandford

Myanmar companies bankroll ‘brutal operations’ of military, independent UN experts claim in new report  

5 August 2019
Human Rights

Money earned by the Myanmar military from international and domestic business deals, “substantially enhances its ability to carry out gross violations of human rights with impunity” according to a report released on Monday by an independent United Nations group looking into military-business ties in the South East Asian country. 

Days of heavy monsoon rains and wind have pounded the refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar area of Bangladesh since 4 July 2019.
WFP/Gemma Snowdon

As monsoon rains pound Rohingya refugee camps, UN food relief agency steps up aid

12 July 2019
Humanitarian Aid

Since 4 July, heavy monsoon rains and wind have pounded the refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, with deaths, displacement and major damage following in their wake, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday.

A child rests on a table in the classroom where her family is sleeping at a school used as a collective centre for internally displaced people in Oicha, Beni territory, North Kivu.
© UNHCR/N. Micevic

Tuesday’s Daily Brief: #GlobalGoals progress, essential meds, updates from Cox’s Bazar, Sudan and DR Congo

9 July 2019
SDGs

This Tuesday’s UN top stories are: high-level discussions on the progress made towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals; falling behind on universal education dream; the UN list of essential medicines updated; life-threatening floods in Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh; and human rights in Sudan and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

WFP disaster risk reduction teams are stabilising slopes that slipped during heavy rains in Cox’s Bazar. July 2019.
WFP/Gemma Snowdon

‘Brutal weather’ continues as Rohingya refugee children endure devastating rainfall in Bangladesh

9 July 2019
Migrants and Refugees

Heavy flooding and landslides in the Rohingya refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, has left thousands of children and families in an increasingly dire situation with critical infrastructure damaged or destroyed, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday, while scaling up relief efforts to those vulnerable children.

Refugee camps in Cox's Bazar turned to mud after the rains, with some areas completely flooded.
WFP/Gemma Snowdon

Scores of Rohingya refugee shelters in Bangladesh destroyed by flooding

5 July 2019
Migrants and Refugees

Heavy monsoon rains in Bangladesh have drenched the Cox’s Bazar settlement, home to more than 900,000 Rohingya refugees, destroying some 273 shelters, and injuring 11 people, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday. The huge refugee camp has been hit by three days of non-stop rain, and more heavy downpours are expected throughout next week, with four months of the monsoon season still to go. 

Bangladesh. Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar to safety in Cox's Bazar.
© UNHCR/Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo

Grievous violations continue against Myanmar civilians, Human Rights Council hears

3 July 2019
Human Rights

Marginalized communities in Myanmar still face “grievous human rights violations” at the hands of security forces, a UN-appointed independent expert said this week, while repeating her call for an international and independent probe into the 2017 exodus from Rakhine state. 

Bangladesh. Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar to safety in Cox's Bazar.
© UNHCR/Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo

UN chief accepts independent report on Myanmar, highlighting ‘systemic’ failure surrounding Rohingya crisis

17 June 2019
UN Affairs

An independent review into how the UN System operated in Myanmar in the years leading up to the mass exodus of the Rohingya following serious human rights abuses, has concluded there were “systemic and structural failures” that prevented a unified strategy from being implemented.

Bangladesh. The Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar to safety in Cox's Bazar
© UNHCR/Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo

Myanmar: Conflict resolution at ‘total standstill’, military commanders must answer for crimes against humanity

14 May 2019
Human Rights

Myanmar’s military commanders must answer charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in a credible court, a United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (FFM) said on Tuesday, urging the international community to cut off all financial and other support to them.

Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) briefs the press at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. 7 September 2018.
UN Photo/Violaine Martin

Release of prize-winning Reuters journalists in Myanmar welcomed by UN

7 May 2019
Human Rights

The release of two prize-winning Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar after reporting on the massacre of Rohingya Muslims has been welcomed by the UN human rights office, OHCHR, which warns however that press freedom there remains “dire”.

Some of the destruction left behind in the aftermath of Cyclone Kenneth which struck Mozambique on 25 April 2019.
WFP

Friday’s Daily Brief: UN chief in China, counter-terrorism, updates from Bangladesh, Mali and Mozambique

26 April 2019
Economic Development

This Friday, we cover: the UN Secretary-General's message in China for sustainable development; the toll of a second cyclone in Mozambique; what UN officials saw first-hand in the Rohingya refugee camp of Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh; the impact of insecurity on education in Mali; and the importance of information-sharing in the fight against terrorism.