New Surge of Rohingya Puts Aid Workers Back on ‘Full Alert’
- 7 years ago
New Surge of Rohingya Puts Aid Workers Back on ‘Full Alert’
10, 2017
GENEVA — United Nations officials struggling to mobilize aid for more than half a million Rohingya Muslims who fled violence in Myanmar
in recent weeks have reported another surge of arrivals in Bangladesh, and warned on Tuesday that the crisis could worsen.
The agency’s unit coordinating relief for the refugees said
that around 14,500 children had been treated for severe malnutrition, which leaves them particularly vulnerable to cholera, although an agency spokesman, Christian Lindmeier, confirmed that no cases of cholera had been confirmed.
The surge in arrivals coincided with reports from local residents of renewed gunfire in northern Rakhine State, the refugee agency said, but
that area of Myanmar is off limits to humanitarian agencies and journalists, and aid workers did not say what had caused the latest influx.
On Tuesday, United Nations agencies and the Bangladeshi health authorities began a campaign to vaccinate refugees against cholera
— the second-largest operation of its kind, surpassed only by the emergency vaccination program carried out in Haiti last year.
The World Health Organization said that more than 10,000 cases of diarrhea had been reported in refugee camps
and settlements close to the Bangladeshi border with Myanmar, and warned of the potential for a cholera epidemic.
10, 2017
GENEVA — United Nations officials struggling to mobilize aid for more than half a million Rohingya Muslims who fled violence in Myanmar
in recent weeks have reported another surge of arrivals in Bangladesh, and warned on Tuesday that the crisis could worsen.
The agency’s unit coordinating relief for the refugees said
that around 14,500 children had been treated for severe malnutrition, which leaves them particularly vulnerable to cholera, although an agency spokesman, Christian Lindmeier, confirmed that no cases of cholera had been confirmed.
The surge in arrivals coincided with reports from local residents of renewed gunfire in northern Rakhine State, the refugee agency said, but
that area of Myanmar is off limits to humanitarian agencies and journalists, and aid workers did not say what had caused the latest influx.
On Tuesday, United Nations agencies and the Bangladeshi health authorities began a campaign to vaccinate refugees against cholera
— the second-largest operation of its kind, surpassed only by the emergency vaccination program carried out in Haiti last year.
The World Health Organization said that more than 10,000 cases of diarrhea had been reported in refugee camps
and settlements close to the Bangladeshi border with Myanmar, and warned of the potential for a cholera epidemic.