US Announces $75M Aid For Rohingya, Host Community In Bangladesh

The US aid agency USAID will provide an additional $75 million in humanitarian aid to persecuted Rohingya refugees in the southeast coast of Cox's Bazar and the host community, the US Embassy in the capital Dhaka announced on Thursday.

It will help the refugee and Bangladeshi host community there meet the ongoing needs that have been exacerbated by the increasing costs of food and fuel, according to a media release by the embassy.

"This new funding will provide critical and life-saving assistance to nearly 600,000 people," said the statement.

Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country in South Asia, is currently hosting over 1.2 million persecuted Rohingya in 33 squalid refugee camps in the country's southern border district of Cox's Bazar.

The majority of them fled a brutal military crackdown in their home country's Rakhine State in August 2017.

The USAID will work with the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP) to provide critically needed food and nutrition assistance, infrastructure maintenance, disaster risk reduction, and logistics support, the release said.

"The food and nutrition assistance includes electronic vouchers for staple and fresh foods at designated distribution sites as well as support to feeding programs for malnourished children six months to five years of age and pregnant and lactating women," it continued.

These programs will target populations residing in 33 refugee camps and 130 sites in the local Bangladeshi community.

In addition, WFP will work with the community to maintain and improve public infrastructure within the camps, according to USAID.

More than 774,000 refugees were forced to flee their homes in Burma's Rakhine State six years ago after members of Burma's military mounted a campaign of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and other horrific atrocities and abuses against Rohingya, read the release.

'It is a difficult time'

Meanwhile, Bangladesh's Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen Thursday alleged that the Myanmar government lacks seriousness in taking back their nationals from Bangladesh, despite repeated assurances by the junta government.

"It's a difficult time. Our policy is … not to allow even one Rohingya to enter. But because of the conflict going on there, we cannot shoot anyone crossing the Bangladesh border," the minister told reporters.

The minister said this in response to the fresh Rohingya refugee influx, including from no-man's land along the Myanmar border, amid a fresh armed battle between two Myanmar groups inside the country.

Some 2,600 Rohingya refugees living in no-man's land along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border last week entered Bangladesh due to the armed conflicts. -