3rd Aid Shipment for Rohingya

The Iranian government is about to dispatch a third shipment of humanitarian aid for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. The decision was made in a consultative meeting of Foreign Ministry officials on ways of easing the plight of the Muslim minority on Wednesday, IRNA reported. The Muslim community has been racked by waves of violence since late August, when alleged militant attacks in Rakhine state sparked deadly reprisals by the Myanmar Army, which the UN believes amounted to ethnic cleansing in the Buddhist military-dominated country. In the meeting chaired by Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia-Pacific Affairs Ebrahim Rahimpour, participants discussed a “roadmap” for Iranian humanitarian assistance to the persecuted people of the South Asian country. Iran’s previous relief packages, which included food, medicine and other basic necessities, were also dispatched to Myanmar’s neighbor Bangladesh last month. Myanmar had around 1.1 million Rohingya before August 25, but that number has halved since the massive military crackdown started. More than half a million Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, joining over 300,000 of the minority people who had already fled years of harassment.