World Food Programme prepares for ration cuts
6/3/2025 6:10
The United Nations has warned
it will have to cut monthly food rations to Rohingya refugees in
Bangladesh from $12.50 to $6 next month, unless it can raise
funds to avert a measure that would worsen hunger in the world's
largest refugee settlement.
"Yesterday, I was informed verbally, and today I received
the letter confirming a $6.50 cut, which will take effect from
April 1," said Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, Bangladesh's top
official overseeing the refugee camps.
"What they are receiving now is already not enough, so it's
hard to imagine the consequences of this new cut," he told
Reuters by phone.
A spokesperson for the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) in
Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital, said the cuts could be averted if
the organization raised enough money in the coming weeks, adding
in a statement to Reuters that it was seeking $81 million.
Bangladesh is sheltering more than one million Rohingya,
members of a persecuted Muslim minority who fled violent purges
in neighbouring Myanmar mostly in 2016 and 2017, in overcrowded
camps in the southern Cox's Bazar district where they have
limited access to job opportunities or education.
Roughly 70,000 fled to Bangladesh last year, driven in part
by growing hunger in their home Rakhine state, Reuters has
reported.
In a letter to Rahman, seen by Reuters, the WFP said it had
been trying to raise funds to keep the rations at $12.50 per
month but had failed to find donors.
A cut in rations to anything less than $6 would "fall below
the minimum survival level and fail to meet basic dietary
needs," it said.
In its statement to Reuters, WFP said $6 a month would still
not allow refugees to meet the "minimum standard" for energy and
nutrition and pregnant and breastfeeding women with higher
nutrient needs were particularly at risk.
The funding gap was due to a broad shortfall in donations
rather than a decision by the Trump administration in the United
States to cut foreign aid globally, the WFP said, adding that
U.S. support for food aid for the Rohingya had continued.
The U.S. has been the top donor to the refugee response,
supporting the U.N. in providing emergency food and nutrition
assistance since 2017.
TURMOIL IN AID SECTOR
The head of the U.N. refugee agency Filippo Grandi said on
Friday in a post on X during a visit to Cox's Bazar that if
donor support to the camps "decreases dramatically - which may
happen - the huge work done by the Bangladesh government, aid
agencies and refugees will be impacted, putting thousands at
risk of hunger, disease and insecurity."
A previous round of ration cuts to Rohingya in 2023 that
reduced the amount of food rations to $8 monthly led to a sharp
increase in hunger and malnutrition, according to the U.N.
Within months, they said, 90% of the camp population
"struggled to access an adequate diet" and more than 15% of
children suffered from malnutrition, the highest rate recorded.
The cut was later reversed.
With $6 monthly, the refugees would receive the equivalent
of about 24 Bangladesh taka daily.
"For comparison, a banana costs around 10-12 taka, and an
egg costs 12-14 taka," said Rahman, the Cox's Bazar-based
official.
Rahman said last month that the U.S. contributed more than
50% of the funds for the Rohingya humanitarian response in
2024, about $300 million.
The decision by the Trump administration to abruptly halt
most U.S. foreign aid and dismantle the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID) has caused turmoil in the
humanitarian sector globally, as U.S-funded programmes providing
lifesaving care for millions of people in countries such as
Sudan and South Africa received termination notices.
The cuts by Washington meant there was already a "squeeze on
operations" at hospitals in the Rohingya camps and in waste
management, Rahman said, with five U.S.-funded hospitals having
to reduce services. He said if food were to be reduced it would
create a "grievous problem".
"These people are stateless, ill-fated and should not be
suffering due to the funding crunch," Rahman said.
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