The United Nations (UN) says donors have pledged roughly $340 million to help more than half a million ethnic Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh since August amid escalating violence in Myanmar.
Mark Lowcock head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that donors including governments and the European Union pledged it at a fundraising conference in Geneva on Monday.
“More contributions are still expected,” said Mark Lowcock.
The Geneva conference was hosted by the European Union (EU), the government of Kuwait and the United Nations’ migration, refugee and humanitarian aid coordinating agencies.
The EU promised to give $32.26 million, according to the UN.
The UN humanitarian officials, high-level government envoys and advocacy group leaders attended the conference aimed at drumming up $434 million funds by February 2018 to help ethnic Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
A total of $100 million had been promised or delivered before the conference opened.
International Organization for Migration (IOM) says, some 800,000 Rohingyas are now living in the makeshift settlements in Ukhia and Teknaf sub-districts of Cox’s Bazar, and of whom 5,89,000 have arrived since security forces in neighbouring Myanmar launched a violent crackdown against them on August 25.
About half of them who have fled are children.
Mark Lowcock lamented the “humanitarian and human rights nightmare” faced by the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. “The main focus of the event was mobilizing resources to save lives and protect people,” he said.
Shameem Ahsan, Bangladesh’s Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, told the meeting that his country was facing an “untenable situation” following the unprecedented exodus of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
He said, the Bangladeshi government was negotiating with Myanmar on the issue, but Myanmar continued to insist that Rohingya were illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
“We are here today because, sadly, the needs are even greater than we can provide with our current resources,” Elisabeth Rasmusson, the Deputy Chief of the World Food Programme (WFP), told the conference.
“On behalf of the people, we are trying to help, we must ask you for more,” he added.
The UN has said earlier, the Myanmar troops and ethnic Rakhine Buddist monks have been carrying out a campaign of killings, arson and rape since August that is tantamount to ethnic cleansing.
