Bangladesh, WFP push for more funding to aid 1.3 million Rohingya refugees

Photo: CA's Press Wing

Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus met on Tuesday in Rome with World Food Programme (WFP) Acting Executive Director Carl Skau, where they reaffirmed their commitment to securing increased funding to support Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh.

Skau called on Yunus at a hotel in the Italian capital, said a statement from Yunus’s office.

In the meeting, he said the Rohingya remain one of the UN agency’s top agenda items as there is an urgent need for funding for Rohingya refugees.

He also reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to mobilising food aid for the 1.3 million Rohingya refugees sheltered in Cox’s Bazar district along Bangladesh’s southeastern coast, most of whom fled a crackdown by Myanmar’s military in 2017.

The two men also discussed the potential for securing funding from new sources, including wealthy nations and multilateral financial institutions.

Skau, however, said that following fresh humanitarian aid commitments, including from the US and the UK, the WFP would continue providing a $12 monthly food stipend to each Rohingya refugee.

Earlier, the UN food programme cut food rations for the refugees in half due to a severe funding shortage caused by factors including the US administration’s move to curtail support to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a key support provider to the refugees.