Myanmar ‘to provide aid’ to Rohingyas inside country

Yangon: Camps will be set up to provide aid for displaced Muslims inside Rakhine state, state-backed media said on Saturday, the first time in a 16-day crisis Myanmar’s government has offered any relief for Rohingya scattered by violence, many to Bangladesh.

Around 300,000 Rohingya have fled since August 25 when militant attacks sent unrest churning through Rakhine, arriving in Bangladesh hungry and exhausted and squashing into already overcrowded refugee camps.

Tens of thousands more are believed to be on the move inside Rakhine, fleeing burning villages, the army and ethnic Rakhine mobs — who Rohingya refugees accuse of attacking civilians — only to become stranded in hills without food, water, shelter or medical care.

Bangladesh has urged Myanmar to stem the exodus by providing for the displaced inside the country and provide ‘safe zones’ for the Rohingya.

Around 27,000 Buddhists and Hindus have also been displaced following attacks by Rohingya militants and are receiving government aid in monasteries and schools.