Geneva: Humanitarian donors have pledged $340 million to care for Myanmar’s Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, an “encouraging” step in the response to the intensifying crisis, the United Nations said.
Many of the funds for the Rohingya Muslim minority, who have fled from violence in the northern part of Myanmar’s Rakhine state, were promised at a high-level humanitarian conference in Geneva, co-hosted by the UN, the European Union and Kuwait.
The UN says it needs $434 million to provide support through February for the 900,000 Rohingya who have fled across the border, as well as the 300,000 local Bangladeshis hosting the influx. “We’ve had an encouraging morning,” UN’s Humanitarian Chief Mark Lowcock told reporters. “We now have pledges of 340 million dollars.”
Some of the money was promised in the run-up to the conference and Lowcock said he expected more commitments in the coming days. A group of nations had also offered $50 million of in-kind donations. Fundraising campaigns are also underway in several countries.
Lowcock stressed the importance of countries actually delivering the cash, with the UN having confronted unfulfilled pledges in past crises.
“Pledges are one thing,” he told reporters. “It’s really important to us that the pledges are translated as soon as possible into contributions”. With no apparent resolution to the crisis in sight, Lowcock noted that there may be a need to raise more funds again next year.
As of Sunday, some 603,000 refugees of Rohingya Muslim minority are estimated to have arrived in Bangladesh and thousands more reportedly remain stranded in Myanmar without the means to cross the border, according to a UN report.
