DHAKA: The UN’s World Food Programme will increase food rations for all Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar on Monday, months after severe aid cuts led to a rise in malnourishment in the refugee camps.
WFP reduced food assistance to the Rohingya by 33 percent earlier this year to $8 a month per person, citing a lack of funding, despite malnutrition being already widespread in the Cox’s Bazar camps.
“The year 2023 was a tumultuous one for the Rohingya in Bangladesh, who lived through multiple fire outbreaks, cyclones, and, for the first time, ration cuts. The rapid deterioration of the food and nutrition situation in the camps is extremely worrying,” said Dom Scalpelli, WFP country director in Bangladesh.
WFP’s food assistance was cut twice in 2023, first in March when the value was reduced from $12 to $10, and again in June, when it was slashed to $8.
The UN body announced on Sunday that it will restore the critical food assistance to $10 per person per month from Jan. 1, 2024. To restore aid to the full amount, WFP said it needs $61 million to fill the current funding gap.
Malnourishment was a major problem in Cox’s Bazar even before the ration cut, with around 40 percent of children under 5 chronically malnourished, and 12 percent acutely malnourished.
“We have noticed a sharp increase in cases of severe acute malnutrition and moderate acute malnutrition among the Rohingya,” Dr. Abu Toha Bhuyan, health coordinator with Bangladesh’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission, told Arab News.
“The $8 amount per month is very low for one person’s food requirements. As a result, the nutritional situation became very imbalanced. The children and the elderly are especially affected by malnutrition.”
The decline in food assistance is also affecting the immunity level of the Rohingya population, Bhuyan said.
“If people have a good immunity, they get less infected with different infectious diseases. Here, we experienced a rise in infectious diseases among the Rohingyas since their immunity was compromised due to less amount of food intake … Malnutrition has also severely impacted the growth of children.”
The challenging situation is an everyday reality for Monowara Begum, who has three children.
“It’s very tough to manage the food for my … family with this little amount … With less amount of food, my children became very skinny and are suffering from different diseases, like flu, coughs, diarrhea, all through the year,” the 41-year-old told Arab News.
“Everything happened because of malnutrition and less immunity. Their growth is also affected, even though they are at a growing age,” she said.
“As a mother, it’s unbearable for me to see my children going hungry most days. I feel very upset with this situation.”
