Turkish agency sends food to 1,012 Rohingya families

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh

The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) distributed food items on April 17 to 1,012 Rohingya refugee families living in makeshift camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district.

“We are giving each Rohingya family 25 kilograms of rice, six kilograms of dal [lentils] and three liters of [cooking] oil,” TİKA deputy coordinator Emrah Ekinci told Anadolu Agency.

A total of 5,000 Rohingya families will be given the same food items in five phases this month, which will continue as a regular monthly package, he added.

“Thus, we are able to distribute food items to more than 20,000 Rohingya people per month,” Ekinci said, adding the food aid is also being distributed to several hundred needy locals.

TİKA has been distributing cooked food daily to Rohingya since the beginning of the Rohingya influx into Bangladesh following the Aug. 25, 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

“Now we are distributing food items as per their needs. Prior to this, we also distributed [cooking] spices according to their requirements,” Ekinci said.

During a field visit, hundreds of Rohingya were seen waiting in a queue at TİKA’s distribution area at the Shafiullah Kata camp in the Ukhia administrative region of Cox’s Bazar.

TIKA earlier visited Rohingya refugee camps and made a list of 5,000 families. It distributed one card to each family. Based on that card, they distribute food items so that all 5,000 families receive relief items.

“We are grateful to TIKA and Bangladesh for helping us,” said Rahima Khatun, 70, who fled Myanmar to Bangladesh with her four children after her husband went missing during a military crackdown.

Anwara Begum, 60, who fled to Bangladesh with her critically injured husband who died after four months, said that after losing everything, they are now living at the mercy of others’ help.

“We want to go back to our country with safety and rights,” she said.