US to give additional $6m for the Rohingya in Bangladesh

The United States has declared to provide an additional $6m to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to address the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh. The aid will come through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said a press release from the US embassy in Dhaka on Thursday. The release said this funding is an addition to the $1 million provided to WFP earlier this year. "This assistance will support food distributions as well as the needed logistics to provide humanitarian assistance," it added. The recent funding to WFP complements assistance announced by the US on September 20, which included $28 million in assistance to Rohingya refugees and host communities in Bangladesh. This new funding will bring the US humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya in the region to approximately $101m in the fiscal year 2017, the release said. In 2017, the US government, through USAID, provided over $212 million in development assistance to Bangladesh. In Cox's Bazar, USAID helps improve the lives of Bangladeshis, including those in communities hosting refugees, through programmes that expand economic opportunity, advance health and education, and ensure human rights and practices. The programmes being implemented through this assistance include services for the victims of trafficking, cyclone shelters, and support for the Smiling Sun Clinics. The US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and USAID have been partnering with the Ministry of Health and ICDDR,B to strengthen Bangladesh's capacity to respond to public health events and disease outbreaks, the release said. "The CDC is also providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and the IOM and other partners on the management of the public health aspects of the Rohingya crisis," it added. The release further said that the CDC staff from Washington DC, with expertise in refugee health and public health crisis management, will be engaged for several weeks in refugee camp health assessments, strategies for reducing disease risks, and the establishment of health information and management systems.