Rohingya refugees in Myanmar receive OIC Ramadan aid

More than 1,100 Rohingya families displaced from their homes in Myanmar received food aid from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) during the month of Ramadan, the Jeddah-based group said on Sunday.
In a press statement, the OIC said it had distributed more than 550 bags of rice (50kg each) through the non-government organization HUMANiTi Malaysia during the month of Ramadan. 
“More than 1,100 families living in Sittwe, Rakhine State, Myanmar, received aid,” said Dr. Syed Hamid Albar, president of HUMANiTi Malaysia and OIC Special Envoy for Myanmar. 
The aid is part of an initiative launched by the OIC Secretary-General Iyad Ameen Madani to ensure basic needs and services, including medical attention and education are provided to Rohingya IDPs, said the statement.
“Earlier this month, Madani organized through HUMANiTi a Ramadan iftar and aid distribution event for refugees in Malaysia,” it said.
Syed Hamid said the OIC is determined to help internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees living in the camps to get basic access to livelihood as well as to try to set up office in Myanmar to provide humanitarian assistance which will be of benefit to all refugees, regardless of ethnic background.
In its latest report last month,the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the number of IDPs in Rakhine, mostly Rohingyas, now stands at about 120,000.
They were among 145,000 people displaced during inter-communal violence in Myanmar's western state in 2012, during which some 20,000 homes were torched.
UNCHR said only 25,000 of the IDPs, so far, have left their temporary shelters “to rebuild their homes themselves — through a process led by the Myanmar government.”

Source: Arab News