10 others were injured and are receiving treatment after an aid truck crashed in Bangladesh, Thursday. More than 420,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Burma to Bangladesh in less than a month.
DHAKA—A truck filled with aid for Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh veered off a road and fell into a ditch Thursday morning, killing at least nine aid workers, hours after another aid shipment in the refugees’ violence-wracked home state in Burma was attacked by a Buddhist mob.
Both shipments were from the International Committee of the Red Cross. Aid groups face different challenges on either side of the border: An influx of more than 420,000 refugees in less than a month in Bangladesh, and in Burma, government resistance and angry allegations from majority Buddhists that international organizations are favouring the long-persecuted Rohingya minority.
A Bangladeshi medical administrator, Aung Swi Prue, said six people died instantly in the truck crash near the border in southeastern Bandarban district. Three people died after reaching a hospital, and 10 others were injured and are receiving treatment.
ICRC spokeswoman Misada Saif said all of those killed were Bangladeshi workers hired to distribute food packages to 500 Rohingya families.
Saif said the truck belongs to the ICRC and Bangladesh Red Crescent Society and was operated by a supplier who has been working for the two agencies for last couple of weeks. She said agency officials are “very shocked and sad.”
“Our thoughts are with the families of the dead. They were there to help the people who desperately need help,” she said.
The Rohingya exodus began Aug. 25, after Rohingya insurgent attacks on police set off a military crackdown.
