Kuwait pledges scholarship for 100 Rohingya girls living in Bangladesh camps

Kuwait has pledged to give 100 girls from the Rohingya refugee community in Bangladesh four-year university scholarships, Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) said on Sunday.

Kuwait's Finance House announced the bursaries after an agreement was signed between the KRCS and the Asian University of Bangladesh, based in Dhaka, according to Kuwait's state news agency KUNA.

Speaking to KUNA, KRCS Secretary General Maha Al-Barjas urged the right to education for all, especially for victims of armed conflict.

She also praised the Kuwaiti private sector's support of the organisation's humanitarian endeavours, focused on relief, educational and health initiatives. 

The United Nations and human rights groups have expressed concern for the fate of the around 600,000 Rohingya remaining in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

Members of the Muslim minority are denied citizenship by Myanmar, which claims they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Min Aung Hlaing, the military chief currently leading Myanmar after February's coup, has been accused of primary responsibility for the killing of thousands of Rohingya.

The Burmese military has also been accused of torching Rohingya villages and raping women as part of the massive wave of oppression on the Muslim minority in Rakhine state. 

More than 700,000 Rohingya fled the violence in recent years, mainly to neighbouring Bangladesh.  

Between late March and April, two fires at the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh in less than two weeks destroyed scores of homes.

The fires, including two other major ones earlier this year, warned of the poor safety standards in the camps where about one million of the Muslim refugees have been living since fleeing the Myanmar military's clampdowns.

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