The United States announced more than $152 million in additional humanitarian assistance for the Rohingya humanitarian crisis, including support for those affected by ongoing violence in Burma, refugees from Burma in Bangladesh, and Bangladeshi host communities.
This funding includes more than $101 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and nearly $51 million from the U.S. Department of State. It brings the total U.S. humanitarian assistance to the crisis to more than $1.7 billion since August 2017.
With this new funding, USAID will help provide emergency food and nutrition assistance, shelter, safe drinking water, and sanitation and hygiene services to affected communities in Burma and Bangladesh. This includes support for more than 900,000 Rohingya refugees in sheltering camps and affected host communities in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district. The new funding also includes support for Rohingya internally displaced persons and other populations in Burma affected by ongoing violence.
Conflict in Burma has resulted in significant population displacement into neighboring Bangladesh, as well as the increased internal displacement and humanitarian needs within Burma, in recent years. More than 920,000 Rohingya refugees have taken refuge in Bangladesh — including approximately 740,000 who have arrived since August 2017, when they were forced to flee genocide, ethnic cleansing, and other horrific atrocities and abuses in Burma’s Rakhine State.
Ongoing conflicts in multiple states of Burma also continue to contribute to increasing internal displacement and humanitarian needs, particularly in southeastern and northwestern Burma, as well as in Kachin and Shan states. The UN is targeting more than 6 million people with humanitarian assistance throughout Burma in 2022 due to increased suffering since the February 1, 2021 coup d’état, COVID-19 impacts, increasing market prices, and economic instability.
The United States remains committed to delivering assistance to crisis-affected communities in Burma and Bangladesh, and USAID welcomes the generous pledges made by other donors toward alleviating human suffering in both countries. However, more assistance is desperately needed. USAID urges other donors to come forward now with additional funds to sustain and increase support for those driven from and affected by violence in Burma.