UN warns of contaminated water for Rohingya refugees

By Fatih Erel

GENEVA

The UN warned on Tuesday that 62 percent of water from wells inside Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh are contaminated.

"We are also concerned by an increase in cases of Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD) which have included several deaths. Between 25 August and 11 November 2017, a total of 36,096 AWD cases were reported including 10 related deaths," UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac told a news conference in Geneva.

Over 74,000 Rohingya refugees who have settled in the villages of Shamlapur, Leda and Unchiprang in the southern part of Cox’s Bazar "have been at risk of being left out of humanitarian aid programmes as international attention focuses on the humanitarian crisis in the main Kutupalong and Balukhali settlements," the UN migration agency, IOM said in a statement on Tuesday.

Since Aug. 25 about 621,000 Rohingya refugees have arrived in Cox’s Bazar, fleeing violence in Myanmar.

According to the UN, the total Rohingya refugee population in the area is now over 834,000.

They are fleeing a military crackdown in which security forces and Buddhist mobs have killed men, women and children, looted homes and torched Rohingya villages.

According to Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali, around 3,000 Rohingya have been killed in the crackdown.

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.

The UN documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings and disappearances committed by security personnel.

In a recent report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.