Turkish NGO starts aid campaign for Rohingya Muslims

Turkey's Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) will start a donation campaign for Rohingya Muslims, the group's deputy chair said on Tuesday.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, IHH’s Deputy Chair Vahdettin Kaygan said the campaign will support Rohingya civilians forced to flee ongoing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

"In the last three days, members of the Myanmar army have conducted operations on 50 villages and set some of the villages on fire," Kaygan said.

He also said around 20,000 Rohingya had been forced to flee into Bangladesh illegally because of border security set up by the Bangladeshi government.

According to a statement released by IHH on Tuesday, the group said they had distributed emergency food aid to nearly 1,000 families who managed to flee to Bangladesh.

Kaygan stated nearly 50,000 Rohingya Muslim villagers who could not flee to Bangladesh had fled to the country’s highlands.

IHH will also deliver aid during Eid al-Adha later this week.

Tensions between Buddhists and Muslims have been simmering in the region since communal violence broke out in 2012.

A UN report last year said there had been human rights violations against Rohingya by the security forces, including crimes against humanity.

The UN documented mass gang-rape, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings and disappearances. Rohingya representatives have said approximately 400 people were slain during a security crackdown last October.

Turkey's Humanitarian Relief Foundation, one of the nation's leading aid groups, sends humanitarian aid to suffering people around the world, including war-torn-Syria, drought-hit Somalia, and Myanmar.