(ANSA) - KUTUPALONG, MAR 02 - Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have said they are struggling to survive after the United Nations cut food aid due to a massive lack of funds.
After a $125 million shortfall in donations, monthly food stamps were cut from $12 to $10 per person starting in March, the UN World Food Program (WFP) announced, warning that further cuts were "imminent."
The cuts have already caused hardship for the million Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh's overcrowded camps, where they depend on aid and where malnutrition is rampant.
"We have no income and rations are reduced," says Rahela Begum, 40, whose son is ill and malnourished.
"She does not eat rice or other foods, but only peanut cream. They have stopped giving it to her and I don't know if she will survive".
It is the first time assistance has been curtailed since an estimated 750,000 Rohingya fled across the border during a 2017 crackdown by Burma's army, now the subject of a United Nations investigation for genocide.
Since then, Bangladesh has struggled to support its huge refugee population and the prospect of a mass return to Burma is increasingly remote.
(HANDLE).