NEW YORK (AP) – The United States will contribute nearly $32 million in humanitarian aid to help Rohingya Muslim refugees, the State Department said Wednesday, in the Trump administration’s first major response to the mass exodus from Myanmar.
The new money for food, medical care, water, sanitation and shelter comes as the U.S. joins a growing chorus of international condemnation over the minority group’s plight. In less than a month, some 421,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, one of the world’s poorest countries, as the United Nations and others raise allegations of ethnic cleansing.
The crisis has threatened to jeopardize Myanmar’s U.S.-aided shift toward democracy after five decades of harsh military rule. Former President Barack Obama helped shepherd that transition in what is considered one of his key foreign policy achievements. President Donald Trump has been less attentive to the country, also known as Burma.
The exodus has also emerged as major blemish on the record of Myanmar’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who maintained close ties to the Obama administration. Simon Henshaw, the top U.S. diplomat for refugee and migration issues, said the U.S. applauds Suu Kyi’s recent call for the Rohingya to return but is urging her to ensure the situation is safe for them to come home.
“We need the government to take a lot further effort to secure the area, to protect the people,” Henshaw said in an interview on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly meetings. “We’re concerned about the reports of attacks, extrajudicial murders, rapes, burning of villages.”