The development follows the UN World Food Program (WFP)’S Notice that from March 1 it would cut aid to those sheltering in the massive Cox’s Bazar camp complex due to a lack of funding.
“These ration cuts are a stain on the conscience of the international communitysaid Tom Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar. “I have spoken to desperate families in the camps who have already had to cut back on essential food due to a rise in prices. Reversing these cuts in food aid is literally a matter of life and death for Rohingya families.”
One million affected
Mr. Andrews reporting to that Human Rights Council in Geneva, in an independent capacity, said the cuts would be made Effects on nearly a million Rohingya refugees fleeing attacks and persecution by the Myanmar military in 2017.
UN humanitarians have already warned that four out of ten Rohingya children now seeking refuge in Bangladesh are suffering stunted growth. Anemia also affects more than half of the youth in the Cox’s Bazar camps and more than four in ten pregnant and lactating Rohingya women.
The World Food Program has reported that a $125 million funding gap to provide life-saving aid to the Rohingya, whose monthly ration was reduced from $12 to $10.
With this money, families can choose from over 40 dry and fresh foods at the WFP points of sale in the camps. But the impact of the cuts “will be dire,” the UN agency said other critical services are already dwindlingalmost six years in the Rohingya crisis.
empty words
Thomas Andrews, independent human rights expert on Myanmar, gives a briefing via video conference.
Echoing this warning, Special Rapporteur Andrews called for immediate support from UN member states, which had offered only “rhetorical support” to the Rohinyga. But “Rohingya families cannot eat political rhetoric“, he said.
“It’s time for UN member states to replace empty declarations of support with life-saving measures,” Andrews said.
In the absence of further humanitarian funding, “these cuts will go even deeper over the next two months, with food rations reduced by a third,” the special rapporteur continued. “That would mean that Rohingya refugees in the camps in Bangladesh would have to try to survive on $0.27 a day on average.”
