Rohingya kids recount horror tales

Energy Tuesday 16/October/2018 21:24 PM
By: Times News Service
Rohingya kids recount horror tales

Muscat: Sitting outside her family tent made of bamboos and tin in the crowded Ukhiya refugee camp, little Aisha narrated how she watched her father being shot dead by Myanmar soldiers.
Tales of savage violence and cruelty, of homes and communities razed to the ground, of children murdered in cold blood, and of women brutally assaulted abound at the refugee camps in Bangladesh.
At just three years of age, she witnessed the mass slaughter of her community at a village in Buthidaung Township in Myanmaer’s western Rakhine state.
Video: Inside the Rohingya refugee camps of Bangladesh
Aisha arrived in Bangladesh along with her mother in May after a long and dangerous journey.More than 1.2 million Rohingya people have fled to Bangladesh since August 25, 2017, making it the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis.
“She is still traumatised. She didn’t sleep for days when she saw her father shot in the head at close range. He fell lifeless on the ground in front of us. We were traumatised. Aisha kept crying and crying for weeks. The Myanmar soldiers raped me along with 10 other women. They separated the men and women in each room. I saw them set fire to the men and burn them alive,” Aisha’s mother, Malikah, 27, told Times of Oman.
At least 60 per cent of the camp’s total population is aged under 18, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Since August, there have been an estimated 720,000 Rohingya children in Bangladesh and Myanmar in dire need of humanitarian assistance and protection – and looking to the outside world for help.
Read also: Thank you Oman, for helping us — Bangladesh foreign minister
Urgent efforts are needed to help the Rohingya children who are threatened either by the approaching cyclone season in Bangladesh or by the ongoing violence and denial of their basic rights in Myanmar.
Meanwhile, vulnerable children – and girls in particular – are prey to traffickers and other abusers.
“This is a crisis without a quick fix that could take years to be resolved unless there is a concerted effort to address its root causes,” said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Director of Emergency Programmes.
Just like Aisha, many other children are still traumatised by what they witnessed in Rakhine State.
Aisha spends some time at the child-friendly area at the refugee camp, which is supervised by social workers and is loaded with toys and games.
“I used to take her twice a week to the place to spend some time playing with other children and to forget what she saw. I hope she will overcome it soon,” her mother added.
Psychological distress and trauma are widespread among the camp’s children; aid agencies said long-term trauma could affect these children.
“People in Rakhine state have lived in horrible conditions and have been exposed to violence in Myanmar. Most of those children are traumatised and they could suffer more long-term effects,” said Elsie Marc of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
“It’s heartbreaking. You can tell from the young Rohingya faces in the camps and you can see how deeply the crisis has shaped them,” she added. Elsie added that many of the children came to Bangladesh unaccompanied as many of them lost their entire families in mass killings back home.
“They saw killings taking place in front of their eyes. It will take a long time for the children to process what happened to their families. It’s a horrible thing they have gone through,” said Mohamad Alam of UNICEF at the Rohingya camp.
Times of Oman team met with other children who shared similar stories about their ordeal and long journey to Bangladesh. Some of them saw their family members burned alive and others were shot dead by the Myanmar army. UNICEF along with other aid agencies have built schools for the Rohingya children, so they can study.
“Education is helping them overcome trauma. So, they can learn and play at the same time,” Alam added.
UNICEF is on the ground helping to deliver life-saving supplies and services for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
With partners, we have helped the government immunise 900,000 children and adults against cholera, and screened nearly 263,000 children for malnutrition. The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar.
The latest exodus began on August 25, 2017, when violence broke out in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, in the western corner of Myanmar, driving more than 723,000 to seek refuge in Bangladesh.
The vast majority in Bangladesh are women and children, and more than 40 per cent are under the age of 12. Many others are elderly people requiring additional aid and protection.
Nearly all those who arrived during the influx have sought shelter in and around the refugee settlements of Kutupalong and Nayapara in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district. Some have joined relatives there.
The enormous scale of the influx is putting immense pressure on the Bangladeshi host community and existing facilities and services, according to UNHCR.