Int’l community pledges $597 million humanitarian assistance for Rohingyas

The international community yesterday pledged $597 million as humanitarian assistance to the Rohingyas in the region, while calling for Myanmar to hold accountable the human rights violators and to create conditions for Rohingya repatriation.

The major pledges came from the US, EU and UK, which announced $200 million, 96 million Euro and 37 million pounds respectively.

The announcement came at a donors conference for the Rohingyas co-hosted by the US, UK, EU and UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) at a time when less than 50 percent of the required $1 billion has been received for the Rohingyas in Bangladesh this year.

About 50 countries including a number of ASEAN countries and Bangladesh attended virtual conference.

"In the initial joint response plan for Bangladesh, the budget was $877 million, but the Covid-19 pandemic required additional funding. Therefore, the budget went up to about $1 billion," a UN official told The Daily Star.