Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak today launched the third My Country, Concerned, Humanitarian Mission for Rohingya with 56.6 tonnes of food and essential items for Rohingya refugees on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border.

The Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAB) A330-300 cargo aircraft ferrying the aid departed from the KL International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang at 2.45pm and is expected to arrive at the Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong, Bangladesh, at 4.25pm local time today.

Najib, who arrived at the MAB Cargo Complex at 2.10pm, also mingled with the crew involved in the mission and inspected the cargo, accompanied by MAB group chief executive officer Izham Ismail, Malaysia Airports Holdings (MABH) managing director Badlisham Ghazali and iM4U chief executive officer Rudy Malik.

The mission is coordinated by iM4U with the cooperation MAB and MAHB to translate the concern of the Malaysian government and people on the plight of the Rohingya.

The cargo included biscuits, sanitary pads, soap, towels, toothbrushes, disposable diapers, blankets and needed other items.

The distribution of the essential items will be managed by iM4U representing the Prime Minister’s Department, with the cooperation of the government of Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, Rudy, who is also this third mission’s head, said iM4U had sent two missions prior to this, namely, on Sept 9 with a cargo of 12 tonnes while the second delivery on Oct 7 was 40 tonnes.

“We expect to send more food and essential items to be distributed by the Bangladeshi government to the two camps with the highest number of refugees, namely, Ketupalong Camp and Balukhali Camp,” he said.

Rudy urged the public to support the initiative by either donating directly to the iM4U Disaster Aid Fund via Maybank account 564324605701 or donating items of need and delivering them to stipulated collection centres.

“We thank the people of Malaysia who helped to make this mission a success. We hope the humanitarian mission will be continued because the conditions at the refugee camps there are very bad,” he said.

In the meantime, Izham said MAB was proud to be involved in the aid mission and was committed to continue supporting humanitarian missions to help the Rohingya community.

“We hope that this aid will relieve the suffering of the Rohingya people. We will continue to support the spirit of My Country, Concerned,” he said.

- Bernama