Bangladesh’s interim government’s chief advisor, Muhammad Yunus, has warned that the situation of Rohingya Muslims living in Bangladesh is deteriorating further and called for urgent measures. Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, Yunus said that with the decrease in international aid provided to the Rohingya people sheltered by his country, their condition is worsening. The Rohingya are citizens of Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Hundreds of thousands of them have migrated to Bangladesh to escape attacks and genocide perpetrated by Myanmar’s military government and extremist Buddhist groups. Currently, about 1.3 million Rohingya people are living in the Cox’s Bazar area of Bangladesh.
“The danger of ongoing unrest in neighboring Myanmar is not only to this region, but it also hinders the return of Rohingya people seeking protection in Bangladesh to their homeland,” said Yunus, who has won the Nobel Peace Prize. Yunus assumed the position of chief advisor to Bangladesh’s interim government following the resignation of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Yunus said that the amount of funding provided by foreign countries and international organizations for humanitarian assistance to Rohingya refugees sheltered by Bangladesh has decreased. As a result, he said, with the reduction in funds for providing food to them, the risk of them facing starvation has increased.
The Myanmar military began a genocide against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State in 2017. As the unrest has continued for eight years, Yunus said that the international community has not taken robust measures to stop it. “We cannot stand by and allow the Rohingya people to be isolated,” Yunus said, calling on Myanmar’s military government to grant citizenship to the Rohingya.
Highlighting a conference scheduled for September 30 to discuss providing additional assistance to the Rohingya sheltered by Bangladesh, Yunus said he hopes that through this meeting, more funding will be secured to provide additional aid to the Rohingya. In the past year alone, more than 150,000 Rohingya have migrated to Bangladesh to escape the ongoing genocide by the Myanmar military.
