(Image source: IANS)
United Nations: Members of the UN Security Council have left for Bangladesh and Myanmar to study the Rohingya crisis.
The 15-member panel made a stopover in Kuwait on Friday before flying to Bangladesh where they will visit capital Dhaka and refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar area, officials said.
After visiting the camps in Bangladesh over the weekend the members will arrive in the Myanmar capital of Nay Pyi Taw on Monday, reports Xinhua news agency.
They will also visit areas in Rakhine state that were affected by the violence beginning last August and from where most of the refugees fled.
According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the overall population of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in Bangladesh is currently estimated to be over 1 million.
Some 670,000 of them arrived in Bangladesh after Rohingya militants launched a deadly attack on Myanmar government forces in Rakhine on August 25, 2017.
Some 8,000 new refugees have arrived since January, Chief UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters here on Friday.
“The government and people of Bangladesh have displayed extraordinary generosity toward Rohingya refugees, with support by the international community,” he said.
“The latest round of food distribution reached over 470,000 people. Over 5,000 tube wells and 47,000 latrines have been built, and more than 90,000 children have received primary school education.”
Humanitarian partners on the ground have also conducted protection monitoring missions to support survivors of sexual and gender-based violence and are also strengthening preparedness efforts to the upcoming cyclone and monsoon season, Dujarric said.
The Cox’s Bazar region of Bangladesh have hosted thousands of Rohingya who had fled Rakhine state before the August incident.
The Rohingya are ethnic Muslims living in the Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Most of the refugees do not have Myanmar citizenship.
