GENEVA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Various UN agencies and their partner NGOs on Friday launched the 2019 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya humanitarian crisis, which is aiming to raise 920 million U.S. dollars to help more than 1.2 million people.
Speaking to the media at the UN headquarters in Geneva, Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said that this appeal was "for both refugees and host communities and the total beneficiary population will reach 1.2 or 1.3 million people.
"This remains one of the biggest priorities. Another monsoon season is upon us; it will be starting in 2 or 3 months, so we need to accelerate work," he said.
UN figures showed that more than 745,000 Rohingya refugees have fled from Myanmar's Rakhine State to Bangladesh since August 2017, escaping violence in Myanmar and joining roughly 200,000 others already displaced in the Cox's Bazar area by previous cycles of violence.
Speaking at a regular press briefing here on Friday, Herve Verhoosel, for the World Food Programme (WFP), said that close to one third of the appeal is dedicated to food security and nutrition, most of which is for WFP programs.
"These programs feed close to 900,000 refugees at a cost of around 24 million U.S. dollars per month," he said.
According to him, food security for the refugee population has improved over the past 12 months, but the majority of refugees remain entirely reliant on this food assistance and ongoing support for the operations is vital to save lives.
