The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its staff in Myanmar and Bangladesh are scaling up their efforts to minimize the suffering of this crisis.
It said on Friday that is deeply concerned about the condition of families fleeing violence in Myanmar to seek safety in Bangladesh since August 25, Xinhua news agency reported.
“All communities affected by the violence are suffering,” said Boris Michel, the regional director of ICRC’s Asia and Pacific zone.
ICRC said that this week it began delivering food and water to around 8,000 families on both sides of the Myanmar-Bangladesh border who fled their homes to escape violence.
An ICRC-supported mobile health team of Bangladeshi doctors and paramedics have also been dispatched to the region in Bangladesh.
“The ICRC is working closely with the Myanmar Red Cross (MRCS), the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS), and community volunteers to respond to this emergency,” it said in a statement issued on Friday.
According to the statement, the Red Cross teams are there helping family members who have lost contact with each other on both sides of the border by offering telephone calls, “safe & well” messages, as well as requests to help find family members who are missing.
The ICRC and BDRCS also have been supporting two Bangladesh government health facilities in Teknaf and Ukhiya sub-districts since the beginning of the influx of people into the city of Cox’s Bazar, improving delivery of health care services to the host communities and the people arriving.
The Rohingya, one of the world’s largest stateless communities, are fleeing in droves toward Bangladesh, trying to escape the latest surge of violence in the Rakhine state between a shadowy militant group and Myanmar’s army.
