DHAKA, Bangladesh
The number of children needing emergency treatment for acute malnutrition in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh has surged 27% amid a decline in funding for the persecuted Muslim community, UNICEF said Tuesday.
The Bangladesh government attributed the funding crisis to US President Donald Trump's shutdown of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) last month as the agency provides approximately 80% of the World Food Program's financial assistance to Rohingya.
Bangladesh has been hosting more than 1.2 million Rohingya in the southeastern Cox’s Bazar district since they fled a military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.
The number surged in February compared to the same period last year. The worsening conditions in the camps have pushed more young children into life-threatening hunger, UNICEF Bangladesh said in a statement.
In Cox’s Bazar, more than 1 million Rohingya refugees, including over 500,000 children, are facing emergency levels of malnutrition. More than 15% of children in the camps are malnourished -- the highest recorded since the mass displacement of Rohingya in 2017, it said.
In January, cases of severe acute malnutrition rose 25% compared to the same month last year. February saw an even sharper increase of 27%, marking a dangerous upward trend.
The surge is also fueled by spikes in severe diarrhea and outbreaks of cholera and dengue.
Poor quality diets have deteriorated the situation while refugees have seen intermittent food ration cuts in the previous two years.
Furthermore, according to the UN, 100,000 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh in recent months fleeing conflict in neighboring Myanmar which has deteriorated the situation in the camps.
“These families cannot yet safely return home, and they have no legal right to work, so sustained humanitarian support is not optional – it is essential,” said UNICEF Representative in Bangladesh, Rana Flowers.
The UN food program WFP warned of halving food ration from April 1 to $6 per person, down from $12.50 due to the critical funding shortfall to the Rohingya response.