Fund crunch forces food ration cuts for Rohingya

The monthly food vouchers that the Rohingya in Cox's Bazar camps receive are reduced by 33 per cent for the second time in just three months.
The latest cutback in daily food ration takes effect from the first day of June.
With the food voucher valued at as little as $8.0 (Tk 840) per person per month, which is less than 10 cents per meal, the refugees face grim choices to make ends meet, UN officials said.
Parents are already eating less and skipping meals so that their children can eat.
Ration cuts affect approximately 1.0-million refugees who remain dependent on aid with no possibility of employment to sustain their livelihoods.
At the start of the year, refugees were receiving from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) a $12 ration per person per month, just enough to meet their daily needs.
However, the ration was reduced to $10 on March 01 due to lack of funding.
Now, it stands at $8.0 only per person.
"We're extremely concerned that WFP has been forced to cut food aid for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh," said Gwyn Lewis, UN resident coordinator in Bangladesh, commenting on food-aid cuts.
"The nutrition and health consequences will be devastating, particularly for women and children and the most vulnerable in the community."
Making an urgent appeal for international support, Ms Lewis said only 24.6 per cent of the Rohingya response is funded to provide basic health services, nutrition, food and education for refugees who do not have any other source of support.
People living in Rohingya camps are barred from working and they are completely dependent on international community funding, she added.
These new cuts in life-saving assistance come at a time when the refugees are recovering from the devastating impacts of cyclone Mocha and the widespread fire that hit the refugee camps this year, leaving thousands of refugees in desperate need of help, said UN officials.
They are particularly vulnerable this year because the 2023 Appeal seeking $876 million is only 24.6 per cent funded as of June 01, resulting in other critical programmes and activities are also being cut.
The WFP is the world's largest humanitarian organisation, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.
Last month, the UN and its partners in Bangladesh appealed for $42.1 million for the Rohingya and Bangladeshi communities in Cox's Bazar who are facing the devastating impact of Mocha.
The cyclone severely affected all 33 refugee camps and surrounding Bangladeshi villages.

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