CHARITY Christian Aid has launched an appeal to help all those displaced by violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, and Rohingya Muslims who have crossed the country’s border into Bangladesh as refugees.

The move comes as monsoon rains, relocations and extortion attempts worsen the living conditions in the Bangladeshi camps for those who fled what used to be Burma. Around 412,000 Rohingya people have fled into Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district since a fresh outbreak of violence erupted in Rakhine on last month. A reported 210 villages have been destroyed in the north of the state, leading to an unknown number of displaced people within Myanmar.

Over the past year, Christian Aid in Myanmar has been working in camps and with conflict-affected communities through local partners, supporting all ethnic groups displaced by violence.

Permission to work in refugee camps in Bangladesh has been limited until now to a handful of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), but authorities there are now willing to accept further NGO help.

Ram Kishan, Christian Aid’s regional emergency manager in South Asia, said: “The number of refugees arriving in Bangladesh is rising rapidly – an estimated 15,000 people coming across the border daily – and now monsoon rains causing flooding in the makeshift camps are making the situation even worse.

“In Myanmar, internally displaced people in Central Rakhine haven’t received regular assistance for days. The humanitarian needs on both sides of the border are mounting up.”

The charity is initially sending £40,000 to local partners for food, water and sanitation, and healthcare provision for 23,000 people.