The United States has allocated a new aid package worth $200 million to support Rohingya refugees who fled ethnic violence in Myanmar, Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun announced during a virtual donors conference on Thursday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd October, 2020) The United States has allocated a new aid package worth $200 million to support Rohingya refugees who fled ethnic violence in Myanmar, Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun announced during a virtual donors conference on Thursday.
"On behalf of the United States, I am proud to announce that the United States is providing an additional $200 million on humanitarian assistance for the Rohingya refugee response in 2020," Biegun said. "Combined with the funding that we have announced previously, our total 2020 contribution to this crisis will now be more than $437 million bringing the US total contribution since August 2017 to nearly $1.2 billion in the countries including Myanmar, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and India."
In August, the State Department marked the third anniversary of Myanmar's military campaign that drove some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims into exile in Bangladesh with a fresh demand for accountability and a safe return of the refugees.
According to data provided by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), more than 800,000 Rohingya refugees have fled from Myanmar's Rakhine State to Bangladesh, with the bulk having sought refuge from August 2017 to June 2019, when fighting between the government forces and Arakan Army, a Buddhist rebel group, was at its fiercest.
The United States, European Union, and UNHCR co-hosted Thursday's donors conference, dubbed Sustaining Support for the Rohingya Refugee Response.
