COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh: Nearly 300,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state into Bangladesh in the 15 days since new violence erupted, the United Nations said Saturday.
The figure has jumped about 20,000 in a day.
“Some 290,000 Rohingya arrived in Bangladesh since August 25,” said Joseph Tripura, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency.
Officials said the UN has found more Rohingya in villages and areas which were previously not included by relief agencies.
Most of the Rohingya are arriving by foot or boat across Bangladesh’s 278 kilometer (172 mile) border with Myanmar, a fourth of which is made up by the Naf river.
The UN said there was a sharp increase in arrivals on Wednesday, when more than 300 boats arrived in Bangladesh.
On Thursday the UN had put the number at 164,000.
The Rohingya have long been subjected to discrimination in Buddhist majority Myanmar, which denies them citizenship.
Myanmar’s government regards them as illegal migrants from Bangladesh, even if they have lived in the country for generations.
Refugee camps near Bangladesh’s border with Myanmar already had about 300,000 Rohingya before the upsurge in violence and are now overwhelmed.
The tens of thousands of new arrivals have nowhere to shelter from monsoon rains.
The latest figure takes the number of Rohingya refugees who have arrived in Bangladesh since violence erupted last October to 377,000.
Those flocking into Bangladesh have given harrowing accounts of killings, rape and arson by Myanmar’s army. The Myanmar authorities deny any wrongdoing.
Most have walked for days and the United Nations says many are sick, exhausted and in desperate need of shelter, food and water.
Rohingya exodus to Bangladesh nears 300,000
Rohingya exodus to Bangladesh nears 300,000
US pays about $160m of the nearly $4 billion it owes the United Nations
- The UN has said the United States owes $2.196 billion to its regular budget
- Trump has said the United Nations has not lived up to its potential
UNITED NATIONS: The United States has paid about $160 million of the nearly $4 billion it owes the United Nations, the UN said Thursday.
The Trump administration’s payment is earmarked for the UN’s regular operating budget, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told The Associated Press.
The UN has said the United States owes $2.196 billion to its regular budget, including $767 million for this year, and $1.8 billion for a separate budget for the far-flung UN peacekeeping operations.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned last month that the world body faces “imminent financial collapse” unless its financial rules are overhauled or all 193 member nations pay their dues, a message clearly directed at the United States.
The disclosure of the payment came as President Donald Trump convened the first meeting of the Board of Peace, a new initiative many see as his attempt to rival the UN Security Council’s role in preventing and ending conflict around the world.
Trump has said the United Nations has not lived up to its potential. His administration did not pay anything to the United Nations in 2025, and it has withdrawn from UN organizations, including the World Health Organization and the cultural agency UNESCO, while pulling funding from dozens of others.
UN officials have said 95 percent of the arrears to the UN’s regular budget is from the United States.
