YANGON, Myanmar — Residents of Myanmar — early beneficiaries of the Baptist missions movement two centuries ago — once again are the focus of work by Baptists. This time, Baptists are providing aid in response to a humanitarian crisis among the Rohingya, a large Muslim people group in southwest Myanmar.
During the past two months, more than 600,000 Rohingya have been displaced from Myanmar’s Rakhine State by so-called security operations of the nation’s Buddhist government. The security operations were initiated in response to Rohingya militant attacks on government outposts and have involved burning numerous villages to the ground among other acts of violence, according to media reports.
The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has called the crisis “the largest mass refugee movement in the region in decades.”
In light of the crisis, the humanitarian aid organization Baptist Global Response (BGR), in conjunction with local partners, has launched relief projects for thousands of Rohingya in Southeast Asia. (BP)
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