On Friday, August 25, an escalation of violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State triggered a mass exodus of eventually more than 422,000 people to Bangladesh, in addition to creating large numbers of internally displaced persons within Myanmar itself. Many civilian members of Mynamar’s Rohingya ethnic minority – mothers, fathers, children – have been forced to flee from ongoing attacks, and have been arriving in Bangladesh destitute, traumatized and without access to medical care.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is already on the ground responding to the most acute medical and humanitarian needs of unregistered Rohingya refugees in the Cox’s Bazaar district of Bangladesh. Our assessments have made clear that an immediate increase in humanitarian assistance is needed in order to save lives, alleviate suffering and maintain human dignity for hundreds of thousands of new arrivals. Right now, there are serious concerns about the risk of potential outbreaks in the makeshift settlements where most refugees are taking shelter, so we are expanding facilities where possible and running increased numbers of mobile clinics in order to provide urgent and critical care.