Rohingya Refugee Crisis

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.

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”.

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. 

The critical needs of 1.2 million mostly Rohingya refugees in south-eastern Bangladesh were top of the agenda for a fact-finding mission to the region by three senior United Nations officials, who called for continuing support on Friday for them from the international community.

Top news for Monday include: the celebration of International Mother Earth Day, efforts by the UN to push for a political solution to the Libyan crisis, the opening of the annual Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the UN Security Council's condemnation of the Sri Lanka attacks, and an upcoming UN high-level mission to Bangladesh to highlight the humanitarian needs of Rohingya refugees settled there.

With more than 745,000 Rohingya having fled violence in Myanmar to settle in Bangladesh, joining roughly 200,000 others already sheltering there, United Nations aid agencies and partners launched an appeal on Friday to help meet their “dire needs".

Concern over escalating violence in Myanmar’s Chin and Rakhine states continues to grow, with civilians reportedly forced to flee both internally, and across the border into Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have already sought shelter.

A newly formed parliamentary committee to amend Myanmar’s problematic constitution was welcomed as a positive move on Thursday by Yanghee Lee, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the country.

The human rights situation in Myanmar continues to deteriorate, as the civilian government fails to bring about democratic reforms and instead resorts to the kind of repression carried out under previous military regimes, said the UN human rights expert Yanghee Lee, speaking at the end of an 11-day mission to neighbouring Thailand and Bangladesh.

Beset by millions of bamboo-chomping beetles, almost every shelter in the vast Rohingya refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar, in Bangladesh, needs replacing. With just over four months to go until the beginning of the monsoon season, the race is on for IOM, the United Nations migration agency which is managing the camp, to provide families living in the worst-affected temporary dwellings, with new and more durable bamboo.