WFP to cut life-saving aid for one million people in Myanmar

Over one million people in Myanmar will be cut from life-saving food assistance provided by the World Food Programme (WFP) from April due to significant shortfalls in funding.

"These cuts come just as increased conflict, displacement and access restrictions are already sharply driving up food aid needs," the WFP said in a statement on Friday.

“The impending cuts will have a devastating impact on the most vulnerable communities across the country, many of whom depend entirely on the WFP’s support to survive,” said Michael Dunford, the WFP’s Representative and Country Director in Myanmar.

The WFP said the cuts would leave millions of people hungry in Afghanistan, parts of Africa and refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Nearly 20 million people in Myanmar are currently in need of humanitarian assistance, with 15.2 million people, about a third of the population, facing acute food insecurity, according to UN human rights experts.

The WFP said it will only be able to assist 35,000 of the most vulnerable people, including children under the age of 5, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and people living with disabilities.

The conflict in Myanmar has contaminated farmland with landmines and unexploded ordnance and destroyed agricultural equipment, making local food production more challenging, the experts added.

On Friday, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres visited the world's largest refugee settlement in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, where more than a million Rohingya face a halving in their WFP-backed food assistance to just 6$ per month from April.

"I can promise that we will do everything to avoid it," Guterres told reporters during his visit to the camps, where the Rohingya already live in poverty.

"I will be talking to all countries in the world that can support us in order to make sure that funds are made available."

The WFP said that it needed $60 million to maintain its food assistance operations in Myanmar this year.

"The WFP is also deeply concerned about the upcoming lean season – from July to September - when food shortages hit hardest," the statement said.

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US President Donald Trump's 90-day freeze on foreign assistance programs has led to cuts in services for refugees from Myanmar,  including the shutdown of hospital care in camps in neighboring Thailand where more than 100,000 are living.

At least 700,000 have fled from Myanmar to refugee camps in Bangladesh since August 2017, when the military launched a clearance operation against the minority.

More than 600,000 Rohingya remain in Myanmar, confined to squalid displacement camps, in addition to those living in crowded refugee camps in Bangladesh.

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