US announces nearly $26 million humanitarian assistance for Rohingyas

Staff Reporter :
The United States has announced nearly $26 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and the region, for those people in Myanmar affected by ongoing violence, and for the communities hosting refugees from Myanmar.
“With this new funding, our total assistance for those affected by the Rakhine State and Rohingya crisis has reached nearly $2.1 billion since August of 2017, when over 740,000 Rohingya were forced to flee to safety in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price said during a press briefing in Washington DC on Tuesday.
He also said, “This new funding allows our humanitarian partners to continue providing lifesaving assistance to affected communities on both sides of the Burma-Bangladesh border, including nearly 980,000 Rohingya refugees hosted by Bangladesh, some 740,000 of whom arrived in the months following August 2017 when they were forced to flee genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and other horrific atrocities and abuses perpetrated by Burma’s military in Rakhine State.”
This funding will also provide assistance to nearly 540,000 Bangladeshi host community members and to others affected by ongoing violence in Burma, he stated.
During the press briefing, Ned Price also said, “The United States appreciates the generosity of the Government of Bangladesh and other nations and the hospitality of the Bangladeshi people in hosting Rohingya refugees, especially now that we are in the sixth year of this protracted crisis.”
Reiterating US support for durable solution of the crisis, he said, “We remain committed to working towards durable solutions to the crisis, and we’ll continue to partner with the Government of Bangladesh, the Rohingya community, host communities, and people inside Burma to ensure a coordinated and well-supported response to this humanitarian crisis.”
The international community must remain steadfast in US commitment to alleviating the suffering of the world’s most vulnerable people, including through the Rohingya crisis response, he added.