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The World Food Programme last week announced yet another devastating cut to food aid for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Rations will be slashed from a meager $12.50 per month to an appalling $6 per month — just 20 cents a day. For a population already on the brink, this latest reduction is catastrophic. The consequences will be dire: widespread malnutrition, increased disease and the potential collapse of a vulnerable refugee community that the world seems determined to forget.
The Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, the world’s largest refugee settlement, were already suffering from food insecurity before this latest cut. In 2023, the World Food Programme was forced to reduce food aid from $12 to $10 per month, then to $8, before restoring it to $12.50 following urgent pleas for funding. Even then, reports indicated rising levels of malnutrition, particularly among children, pregnant women and the elderly. Now, with rations halved to just $6 per month, the international community is not just abandoning the Rohingya — it is starving them.
To put this into perspective, a single meal in the refugee camps currently costs about 50 cents. The new rations will not even cover two weeks of sustenance. Families that have already cut meals and portion sizes to survive will now have to make impossible choices. Parents will go hungry so their children can eat. Malnutrition, already rampant, will become a full-blown health crisis. Stunted growth among children, increased maternal mortality and the spread of diseases like cholera and tuberculosis — exacerbated by weak immune systems — are all but guaranteed.
Families that have already cut meals and portion sizes to survive will now have to make impossible choices.
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim
The World Food Programme attributes these drastic cuts to donor fatigue and a shifting global focus. Conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and other regions have diverted aid money, leaving the Rohingya lower on the priority list. But humanitarian aid should not be a zero-sum game. Starving one group of people to fund assistance for another is not a solution — it is an indictment of global inaction.
The reality is that the international community is allowing this crisis to unfold. Bangladesh, already struggling with economic pressures and political instability, is in no position to fully support the nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees in its territory. Meanwhile, the very countries that once championed human rights and condemned Myanmar’s genocide against the Rohingya are now failing to provide the most basic humanitarian assistance to its survivors.
Beyond the immediate humanitarian catastrophe, this dramatic reduction in food aid will have severe political and security implications. Starving populations do not simply waste away in silence; they seek alternatives. For many Rohingya, this will mean embarking on perilous migration journeys to escape the camps, often falling prey to human traffickers who promise them safety in Malaysia, Indonesia or elsewhere. Others may turn to desperate measures, including illicit activities, to feed their families.
Moreover, extremist groups could exploit this crisis, preying on the hopelessness of a starving and abandoned people. Historically, famine and extreme deprivation have provided fertile ground for radicalization. Should any such elements gain traction within the refugee population, the ramifications would not be confined to Bangladesh alone but could spill across the region.
The Rohingya have been described as the most persecuted minority in the world. Driven from their homeland in Myanmar by a genocidal military campaign, they have spent the past seven years languishing in refugee camps with no clear future. Repatriation efforts have repeatedly stalled, as Myanmar remains unsafe and unwilling to take them back. Bangladesh has made it clear that it cannot host them indefinitely, yet third-country resettlement efforts have barely scratched the surface of the need.
With no path to citizenship, no right to work and now barely enough food to survive, the Rohingya are being pushed into an unlivable situation. The reduction in rations is not just an economic measure — it is a death sentence, imposed by bureaucratic indifference and international apathy.
Extremist groups could exploit this crisis, preying on the hopelessness of a starving and abandoned people.
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim
The World Food Programme and other humanitarian agencies must receive urgent funding to restore rations to at least their previous levels. Wealthy nations, particularly those that have spoken out against Myanmar’s crimes, have a moral obligation to step up. The US, UK, EU and the Gulf states must increase their contributions to the Rohingya aid program.
Beyond emergency funding, longer-term solutions must be explored. One option is the creation of sustainable agricultural and livelihood programs within the camps, allowing refugees to produce their own food rather than relying entirely on external aid. Additionally, diplomatic efforts must be redoubled to pressure Myanmar into accepting the safe, voluntary and dignified return of Rohingya refugees. The international community cannot simply abandon an entire ethnic group to slow starvation in makeshift camps.
The reduction of Rohingya food rations to $6 per month is not a minor adjustment — it is a humanitarian crisis in the making. If action is not taken immediately, we will witness mass hunger, preventable deaths and the further destabilization of an already fragile region. The world has a choice: it can either prevent this disaster or bear the moral and political consequences of allowing it to happen. The Rohingya have already suffered enough. Starvation should not be added to their long list of injustices.
- Dr. Azeem Ibrahim is the director of special initiatives at the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington, DC. X: @AzeemIbrahim