Myanmar 🇲🇲 Rohingya crisis: UN 'on full alert' for new exodus

The UN refugee agency says it is on full alert for a new escalation in the Myanmar crisis after more than 11,000 Rohingya Muslims crossed the border into Bangladesh on Monday.

The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says that the UNHCR and aid workers are already struggling to support more than half a million Rohingyas who have already fled in recent weeks.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef, meanwhile, have begun a massive cholera vaccination campaign near the south-eastern Bangladeshi town of Cox's Bazar, which they hope will also prevent diarrhoeal diseases in overcrowded camps that lack clean water or sanitation.

More than 10,000 cases of diarrhoea have been diagnosed over the last week, the WHO said, with concern rising that cases of cholera - a virulent form of diarrhoea that can kill within 36 hours - may also be on the rise.

More than 1,000 people will distribute the vaccine, fanning out across the sprawling camps that are home to refugees who have already risked their lives to make the perilous trip to Bangladesh.

UCJ, UNILORIN.