WFP provides food for people fleeing Myanmar violence

The World Food Programme or WFP is distributing food to people fleeing to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, the UN agency said on Thursday.

An estimated 146,000 or 0.146 million people have streamed across the border into the district of Cox’s Bazar since 25 August.

The agency said, “WFP has [so far] provided more than 28,800 new arrivals with a three-day supply of high-energy biscuits, while some 28,000 people have received a hot meal of khichuri through communal kitchens.”

Action Contre la Faim, the Red Crescent Society and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are also providing food to people in the camps.

It said it is especially concerned about the health of women and children who are arriving hungry and malnourished, and is providing them with special, high-nutrient porridge made of wheat and soya flour.

WFP added that it plans to continue providing energy biscuits to families as they arrive, followed by 50kg of rice per month for four months.

Dipayan Bhattacharya, WFP’s Deputy Country Director in Bangladesh, said, "Thousands of people are arriving in Cox’s Bazar daily, looking for a space to settle down.

"Most of the people making the dangerous border crossing are women, children and the elderly. WFP is scaling up its operations to help them, and we call upon the donor community to allow us to continue doing so."

The agency appealed for US$ 11.3 million to support the new influx of people arriving, in addition to those already living in camps.

WFP has been providing food assistance to approximately 72,500 people in makeshift camps since the previous outbreak of violence in October 2016, plus some 34,000 registered refugees.