Turkey-based agency provides aid to 550,000 Rohingya

By Ethem Geylan, Cansu Dikme

ISTANBUL

A Turkey-based humanitarian agency has so far reached more than 550,000 Rohingya Muslims since a new crisis began unfolding in Myanmar’s Rakhine state on Aug. 25.

According to Humanitarian Relief Foundation’s (IHH), the Rohingya, who were benefited from the aid, include those in Rakhine state and also those who crossed into Bangladesh.

Since Aug. 25, more than 656,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh, according to the UN.

The refugees are fleeing a military operation that has seen security forces and Buddhist mobs kill men, women and children, loot homes and torch Rohingya villages.

“We’ve sent aid to camps in [Bangladesh's] Cox's Bazar, IDPs’ [internally displaced persons] camps in Sittwe [provincial capital of Rakhine state], Maungdaw and Buthidaung towns [in western Myanmar],” Vahdettin Kaygan, IHH’s deputy chairman said.

Aid -- including food, clean water, hygiene supplies, tents, and clothing -- was distributed to needy Rohingya people, who stay in camps both in Myanmar and Bangladesh, Kaygan added.

IHH, one of Turkey’s leading aid groups, sends humanitarian aid to suffering people around the world, including war-torn-Syria, drought-hit Somalia, and Myanmar.

Kaygan said the agency would open five rehabilitation centers, which would serve 2,000 children, adding the first already came into service.

Three medical centers have been built in refugee camps of Myanmar and Bangladesh, he said, adding, over 1,000 people use them on daily basis.

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

At least 9,000 Rohingya were killed in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state from Aug. 25 to Sept. 24, according to Doctors Without Borders.

In a report published on Dec. 12, the global humanitarian organization said that the deaths of 71.7 percent or 6,700 Rohingya were caused by violence. They include 730 children below the age of 5.

The UN has documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by security personnel. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.