Rohingya refugees jostle to receive food distributed by local organisations in Kutupalong of Cox’s Bazar on Saturday. — Reuters photo
Thousands of Rohingyas fleeing violence in Myanmar, who have entered Bangladesh or have been stranded along the borders, are in bad need of relief goods, which are yet to reach them.
International humanitarian agencies have said that they are struggling to cope with situation due to staggering number of Rohingyas who fled violence in Myanmar in a short period of time since August 25 when the latest spell of violence erupted.
Reuters on Saturday night reported that Rohingya insurgents declared a month-long unilateral ceasefire, starting on Sunday, to enable aid groups to help ease a humanitarian crisis in northwest Myanmar.
Nearly 3,00,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh and 30,000 non-Muslim civilians have been displaced inside Myanmar after the military launched a counter-offensive following attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army insurgents on 30 police posts and an army base on August 25.
‘ARSA strongly encourages all concerned humanitarian actors resume their humanitarian assistance to all victims of the humanitarian crisis, irrespective of ethnic or religious background during the ceasefire period,’ ARSA said in a statement.
In its statement, ARSA called on the military to also lay down arms and allow humanitarian aid to all affected people.
Reuters also reported from Yangon that several more villages were burned down on Saturday in a part of northwest Myanmar where many Rohingya Muslims had been sheltering from violence sweeping the area, two sources monitoring the situation said.
The fires, which burned up to eight villages in the ethnically mixed Rathedaung region, have increased concerns that more minority Rohingya will flee to neighbouring Bangladesh.
‘Slowly, one after another villages are being burnt down – I believe that Rohingyas are already wiped out completely from Rathedaung,’ said Chris Lewa of the Rohingya monitoring group, the Arakan Project.
While an UN estimations on Friday feared that more than 1,000 people have been killed in the violence.
About 2,90,000 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh since August 25 when violence erupted in Rakhine state of Myanmar, said UN refugee agency UNHCR on Saturday.
Border Guard Bangladesh and foreign ministry officials estimated that another 1,00,000 persecuted Rohingyas were waiting along the border for scope to enter Bangladesh.
Disaster management and relief minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya on Saturday at an exchange of views at Nayapara Refugee Camp in Cox’s Bazar said that the government was considering temporary shelter for Rohingyas from a human perspective although sheltering such a large
number of refugees was difficult for Bangladesh.
Referring to the fresh influx of refugees, he called on the international organizations and community to stand beside them and put pressure on Myanmar to take its people back.
Local people warned of dire consequences as tens of thousands of Rohingyas continued entering Bangladesh.
The overcrowded registered and unregistered camps in the country’s prime tourist district Cox’s Bazar are unable to provide the basic life-sustaining essentials for so large number of displaced people.
Rohingyas are living here and there making makeshift shelters beside roads and highways, cutting hills and forests in bordering areas in Cox’s Bazar and Bandarban amid scarcity of water supplies and insufficient relief and medical services.
‘No Rohingya has got any relief so far,’ Aziz Uddin chairman of Baharchara Union parishad of Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar and added that only IOM provided some medical aid.
‘Rohingyas are virtually living with little food provided by the locals on humanitarian grounds,’ said Aziz, adding about 40,000 Rohingyas were living in open field or other places at his union.
He said that they with the help of upazila administration and law enforcers were sending Rohingyas to different registered and unregistered camps.
Cox’s Bazar additional district magistrate Khaled Mahmud, also the focal person on Rohingya issue, said that administration opened a control room to monitor issues including relief.
‘So far we have received some relief materials from the Turkey government and we would distribute these on Sunday,’ he added.
Meanwhile, Chittagong deputy commissioner’s staff officer Md Ramij Uddin said that a special aircraft of Malaysian Air force landed at Shah Amanat International Airport of the port city carrying 12 tonnes of rice, date, soaps, water purifying tablets and others for Rohingyas.
UNHCR Bangladesh spokesperson Joseph Tripura said that they were providing meals and shelters to new entrants Rohingays at registered camps.
‘But the humanitarian assistance was insufficient as camps have been overcrowded beyond its capacities,’ he said.
Rohinagys who arrived in Ukhia Customs Ghat area were found waiting for relief.
Dilshad Begum, a Rohingya woman, said that she and her two children did not have any food for last two days while Sadek Ahmed, a Rohingya man, said almost all who had taken shelters in the area were starving for day after day.
Hafij Ahmed, one of the leaders of Balukhali Rohingya camp, said that the Rohingyas got some dry food from some international humanitarian groups. ‘Local people are providing some food for the Rohingyas’ he added.
Rohingya leaders said that the condition of their fellows stranded along with border was worse than the people who entered the neighboring country.
These Rohingays are living without proper shelter facilities, food, drinking water and sanitation facilities.
Bangladesh Red Crescent Society secretary general Mozharul Huq said they are providing safe drinking water and dry food for the Rohingyas stranded along with border. ‘Our mobile medical team would begin their work soon,’ he said.
‘It was beyond our estimation that so many Rohingays would enter Bangladesh in such a short time. We need to mobilise fund as well as resources for providing human assistance,’ he said.
International Organisation for Migration situation report on Saturday said that till Friday majority of new arrivals of Rohingyas were still on the move.
‘There is immediate need for food assistance for the majority of the new arrivals. Most of the new arrivals do not have or have finished the food stock with them and the main food source is sharing on the part of host communities and old unregistered Myanmar nationals,’ said the report.
IOM has so far distributed 6,957 plastic tarpaulins, 300 sleeping mats, and 600 non-food item kits containing essentials such as cooking sets, clothes, bedding and mosquito nets, to the new arrivals.
The United Nations-led humanitarian agencies operating in Cox’s Bazar would urgently need $77 million to assist people who fled violence in Rakhine state, Myanmar, said UN resident coordinator in Dhaka Robert Watkins said.
‘With the movement of people showing no signs of stopping, it is vital that agencies working in Cox’s Bazar have the resources they need to provide emergency assistance to incredibly vulnerable people who have been forced to flee their homes and have arrived in Bangladesh with nothing,’ Robert Watkins said.
To support the new arrivals there ‘is now an urgent need’ for 60,000 new shelters, as well as food, clean water and health services, including specialist mental health services and support for survivors of sexual violence.
Meanwhile local people said that hundreds of Rohingyas were entering Bangladesh through Shah Parir Dwip, Shamlapur, Unsi Prang, Kanjarpara, Lambabil points under Teknaf, Chepatkhali under Ukhia and others places.
Border Guard Bangladesh 34 battalion members said that a group of Myanmar Army, more than 100 was seen patrolling their zero point opposite to Tumbro border point of Bangladesh, creating panic among Rohingyas stranded at the zero point.
‘As far as we can see, they were Army,’ said BGB 34 battalion commanding officer lieutenant colonel Manzarul Hassam Khan.
Source: New Age
