US to provide additional $75m for Rohingyas

Industry Desk: The United States (US) will provide an additional 75 million US dollar in humanitarian assistance to help vulnerable Rohingyas and Bangladeshi host community in Cox’s Bazar meet ongoing needs that have been exacerbated by the increasing costs of food and fuel.
The new funding that will provide critical and life-saving assistance to nearly 600,000 people is being disbursed through U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a US embassy press release said here on Thursday.
With this new funding, USAID will work with the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) to provide critically needed food and nutrition assistance, infrastructure maintenance, disaster risk reduction, and logistics support.
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.
These programs will target populations residing in 33 Rohingya camps and 130 sites in the local Bangladeshi community.
In addition, through disaster risk reduction programming, WFP will work with the community to maintain and improve public infrastructure within the camps.
Bangladesh hosts more than one million refugees, of whom a majority are ethnic Rohingya.
“More than 774,000 refugees (Rohingyas) were forced to flee their home in Burma’s (Myanmar’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,” said the release.
The majority of these Rohingyas are living in one of the world’s largest refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar District.
The US is committed to helping the Rohingyas, and USAID will continue to support them in their time of need, as well as the generous communities in Bangladesh who host them, said the US embassy.