THE United Nations鈥� sudden and drastic reduction in monthly food aid, by 52 per cent, could be devastating for more than a million of the Rohingyas now sheltered in Bangladesh. The World Food Programme on March 5 announced that it would reduce its allocation for food for the Rohingyas in Bangladesh from $12.5 to $6 per person beginning on April 1 and cited a fund shortage as the reason for the decision. The UN office is reported to have verbally conveyed the decision to the Bangladesh government the day before. The UN move would very well result in a huge blow to not only the sustenance but also the health and safety of the largest refugee settlement in the world. The number of the Rohingyas staying in Bangladesh exceeds 1.3 million, with the large-scale influx having taken place since August 2017 against the backdrop of violence against the Rohingyas, which the United Nations that time likened to 鈥榓 textbook example of ethnic cleansing.鈥� The Rohingya population is also reported to be increasing by 30,000 new births on an average every year. Official data say that 1,005,520 of the Rohingya people in Bangladesh are registered.
Khalilur Rahman, who was appointed the high representative to the chief adviser on Rohingya crisis and priority affairs on November 19, 2024, seeks to say that the government is working with donors, who are working among themselves, to find a way out of this situation, hoping for an early positive outcome. The ministry of foreign affairs also says that the interim government is keeping up efforts to repatriate the Rohingyas to their homeland Myanmar. But nothing tangible has been forthcoming on this front. The failure in the repatriation of the Rohingyas is blamed on Myanmar鈥檚 military regime, which has created a fearful situation and deflected any bilateral or multilateral efforts for a sustainable repatriation of the Rohingyas, and the world community, including the United Nations, which has failed to impress on Myanmar to take back the Rohingyas. Some efforts started brewing in the initial days and they petered out soon. A temporary food aid reduction by a third beginning in March 2023 is reported to have resulted in an observable decrease in food consumption, an increase in malnutrition and gender-based violence and a reduction in children鈥檚 attendance to learning centres. Food assistance is reported to have made up about 70 per cent of the household food expenditure in the camps that time.
The reduction in food aid this time, if it could not be attended to early, could have a telling impact on the Rohingyas. The world community should, therefore, make up for the UN food aid cut as the Rohingya crisis is what world leaders have also failed to address.