World Bank to provide $700 million in support to Rohingya Muslims
Bangladesh has announced that the World Bank will provide $700 million in support to communities hosting Rohingya Muslims.
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Bangladesh Foreign Minister Muhammad Hasan Mahmud announced at a press conference that of the $700 million to be provided by the World Bank, $315 million will be in the form of a grant for Rohingya Muslim refugees, while the remaining $385 million will be provided as a loan to communities in the Cox's Bazar region.
EMPHASIS ON COOPERATION
Speaking after his meeting with World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan Abdoulaye Seck, Mahmud stated that the World Bank wishes to deepen its cooperation with Bangladesh.
Mahmud noted that during the 19th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) held in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, he spoke with the Myanmar Military Junta's Foreign Minister Than Swe and that they shared the same view regarding the return of Rohingya Muslims to their country.
ETHNIC CLEANSING OF ROHINGYA MUSLIMS
In 2012, clashes broke out between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar's Rakhine state, resulting in the massacre of thousands of people, mostly Muslims, and the burning of hundreds of homes and businesses.
Nearly 1 million people, fleeing mass violence perpetrated by the Myanmar military and Buddhist nationalists—who cited simultaneous attacks on border police posts in Rakhine on August 25, 2017, as a pretext—took refuge in neighboring Bangladesh.
A large number of Rohingya Muslims live in overcrowded refugee camps in the Cox's Bazar region of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh currently hosts more than 1.2 million Rohingya Muslim refugees.