UN Food Agency Seeks Urgent Funding To Avoid Aid Cuts To Rohingya

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has called for immediate funding for its activities in Bangladesh, stating that a lack of funds will result in the reduction of rations for the Rohingya in the biggest refugee settlement in the world.

The United Nations would have to cut food rations to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh from $12.50 to $6 per month in April after failing to secure funding, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Although the WFP has not stated if the Trump administration's desire to reduce US foreign aid worldwide was the reason for the drop, an official told Reuters that it was probably because the US had been the largest donor throughout the Rohingya crisis, reports Reuters.

"Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh remain entirely dependent on humanitarian assistance for their survival. Any reduction in food assistance will push them deeper into hunger and force them to resort to desperate measures just to survive," Dom Scalpelli, WFP Country Director in Bangladesh, said in a statement.

The WFP said it had already started communicating with the Rohingya community about the potential ration cuts.

Bangladesh is sheltering more than one million Rohingya—members of a persecuted Muslim minority who fled violent purges in neighbouring Myanmar mainly in 2016 and 2017—in overcrowded camps in the Cox's Bazar district, where they have only limited access to job opportunities or education.

Growing hunger in their home state of Rakhine in Myanmar drove out a majority of the 70,000 Rohingya who arrived in Bangladesh last year, Reuters reported.

The funding cuts in March come during the holy month of Ramadan and the WFP estimates it will need $15 million in April to sustain full rations.