UN to boost food ration for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

DHAKA: The United Nations will increase the food ration for each Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh by $2 a month, to $10, from Jan 1, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday, as it thanked donors for coming to the rescue of a cash-strapped effort.

The United Nations had cut food aid last year to the refugees by a third, to $8 each every month, as it had raised less than half of the $876 million required to support them.

Nearly a million members of the Muslim minority from Myanmar live in bamboo-and-plastic camps in Bangladesh’s border district of Cox’s Bazar, most of them having fled a military crackdown in 2017. “The rapid deterioration of the food and nutrition situation in the camps is extremely worrying,” Dom Scalpelli, the WFP’s director in Bangladesh, said in a statement.

“Through all this, the donor community stood with the Rohingya - it’s all thanks to its generous contributions we can now have this increase and also add locally fortified rice to WFP’s food assistance package.”