EU sends $2.7M aid for regions hosting Rohingya refugees after Cyclone Mocha

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) – The EU has sent €2.5 million (around $2.7 million) in emergency support for regions in Myanmar and Bangladesh that are hosting Rohingya refugees after the devastating rainfalls, the European Commission announced on Thursday.

“Following cyclone Mocha in Myanmar and Bangladesh, the (European) Commission has released €2.5 million in emergency humanitarian aid,” the EU executive body said in a statement.

The support is meant to “address the most urgent needs” of “highly vulnerable people,” especially in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and Bangladesh’s Cox Bazaar district that host Rohingya who had fled their homes because of the conflict, it said.

The natural disaster had “largely destroyed” temporary shelters for the displaced in Myanmar’s northern region, and more heavy rainfalls are expected to come, increasing the risk of floods and landslides, it added.

In 2017, a mass exodus of Rohingya people was provoked by the Myanmar military's brutal crackdown on the Muslim minority in the country’s northern region.

Since then, approximately 1.2 million Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh, living in precarious situations at the world’s largest refugee camp in Cox Bazaar.