UN seeks nearly $1b in aid for Rohingyas in BD

The UN said Monday it and partners were seeking nearly $1 billion to provide life-saving aid this year for some 1.5 million Rohingya refugees and their hosts in Bangladesh.

The United Nations said that it and more than 100 partners were launching a 2025-26 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya crisis, amid "dwindling financial resources and competing global crises".

The appeal, it said in a statement, "seeks $934.5 million in its first year to reach some 1.48 million people including Rohingya refugees and host communities".

Around a million members of the persecuted and mostly Muslim minority live in squalid relief camps in Bangladesh, most of whom arrived after fleeing the 2017 military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar.

"In its eighth year, the Rohingya humanitarian crisis remains largely out of the international spotlight, but needs remain urgent," Monday's statement said.

It stressed that "any funding shortfalls in critical areas, including reductions to food assistance, cooking fuel or basic shelter, will have dire consequences for this highly vulnerable population".

It could, it added, "force many to resort to desperate measures, such as embarking on dangerous boat journeys to seek safety".

The UN said that more than half of the refugee population in the camps are women and girls, "who face a higher risk of gender-based violence and exploitation".

And it highlighted that a third of the refugees are aged between 10 and 24, warning that "without access to formal education, adequate skills building and self-reliance opportunities, their futures remain on hold".

"Until the situation in Myanmar's Rakhine State is peaceful and conducive to returning safely and voluntarily, the international community must continue to fund life-saving assistance to refugees in the camps."