Nearly 3 weeks into Rohingya crisis, aid remains scarce

Displaced Rohingya people in Rakhine State (8280610831) (cropped) (Photo By Foreign and Commonwealth Office – Flickr, OGL)

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh — Nearly three weeks into a crisis that has seen hundreds of thousands of Rohingya flee into Bangladesh, desperation was spreading at refugee camps where aid remains scarce.

The U.N. children’s agency says it needs $7.3 million to help just the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya children now at high risk of contracting water-borne diseases.

Scenes of panic erupted Thursday along roadsides where local volunteers were distributing food, water and other supplies haphazardly from parked vehicles. Local officials shouted through bullhorns for volunteers to co-ordinate their efforts with aid agencies to avoid spreading chaos.

UNICEF’s country representative Edouard Beigbeder said “there are acute shortages of everything, most critically shelter, food and clean water.”