A charity appeal has been launched by the UK Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) to provide aid to the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing violence in Myanmar.

The government has promised to match the first £3 million donated by the public. DEC member charities are already in Bangladesh delivering aid, but they describe urgently needing more resources in what DEC Chief Executive Saleh Saeed has described as 'one of the fastest movements of people in decades'.

More than 500,000 Rohingya Muslims fled the violence in Rakhine state, Myanmar, with the majority staying in makeshift refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Saeed called the exodus a 'catastrophe' that has left many in need of shelter, medical care, water and food.

The UN has described the treatment of the Rohingya people in Myanmar as 'ethnic cleansing'. Violence broke out in Rakhine state on 25 August after Rohingya insurgents killed 12 members of the security forces, prompting a military offensive. The crackdown by nationalist militias has included dozens of villages being torched, and acts of physical and sexual violence.

Saeed said people were arriving at overcrowed camps in Bangladesh 'exhausted and traumatised'.

'Families are living in makeshift shelters or by the side of the road with no clean drinking water, toilets or washing facilities,' he said.

'This humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in a country that is already reeling from the worst floods in decades.'

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's de factor leader, has faced international condemnation for refusing to condemn the actions of Myanmar's security forces. She claimed there has been 'an iceberg of misinformation' with respects to villages being burned and people being killed.

Last week the Nobel Peace Prize winner said the Rohingya who have fled Myanmar will be allowed to return.

International Development Secretary Priti Patel said 'it is utterly intolerable that the military who are responsible for this inhumane catastrophe have not heeded calls for restraint' and that the British government will do 'everything it possibly can' to help.