Rakhine crisis: UN responds to mass exodus from Myanmar
The estimated one million Rohingya living in Myanmar’s Rakhine state are a Muslim minority group not recognized by the Government. Since 1962, successive Myanmar governments have progressively stripped the Rohingya population of their political and civil rights, including citizenship. Pictured, women in Basara camp for internally displaced persons outside of Sittwe, in Rakhine state, in December 2013.
The area where the Rohingya live is already the least developed in Myanmar. The World Bank estimates its poverty rate is 78 per cent, as compared with 38 per cent in the rest of the country. Pictured, a boy outside his family hut in Basara camp for displaced persons on the outskirts of Sittwe in December 2013.
The latest round of violence, which broke out in Rakhine state on 25 August, reportedly includes the burning of villages, extrajudicial killings, rape and the laying of landmines. On 11 September, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said the situation “seems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” Pictured, displaced persons near Sittwe in December 2013.
UN aid workers across the border say the people they speak with are very vulnerable and traumatized. There are “hundreds of people virtually camped out anywhere there is space. Any spare muddy piece of land or on hillside,” said IOM Asia-Pacific Spokesperson Chris Lom, speaking with UN News from Cox’s Bazar. Pictured, refugees waiting for boats to cross the border through the Naf River.
About 60 per cent of the Rohingya refugees – some 200,000 – are children, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). In the past few days, UNICEF identified more than 1,100 children separated from their families, and expects the number to increase.
Life-saving aid such as food and water are the top priorities, along with shelter, for UN agencies and partners assisting those who are fleeing. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is especially worried about women and children arriving hungry and malnourished.
WFP is providing food – high-energy biscuits, warm meals or e-vouchers – to new arrivals registering with the UN.
Two flights carrying aid for the refugees arrived on 12 September in Bangladesh. The aid included shelter material, jerry cans, blankets, sleeping mats and other essential items for 25,000 refugees, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR). Pictured, refugees setting up temporary shelters among rice fields, after crossing the border.
UN and aid partners have launched an emergency appeal for Rohingya refugees, calling for $77 million to assist some 300,000 people over the next three months. The funding would help provide life-saving aid for new arrivals, camps and host communities.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged all countries to assist the humanitarian aid effort. He also called on the Myanmar authorities to suspend military action, end the violence, uphold the rule of law, and recognize the right of return of all those who had to leave the country.