Cash crunch may force cut to rice rations for Myanmar displaced: WFP
Yangon (AFP) - The World Food Programme on Thursday warned a cash shortfall means it may be forced to slash rice rations by a fifth to 200,000 vulnerable displaced people in Myanmar, including Rohingya Muslims in desperate camps in Rakhine state.
The WFP, an arm of the United Nations, said it would have to make the 20 percent cuts to November rations if it was unable to fill its funding gap immediately, but said it hoped the reductions would be "temporary".
The body said it needs $29 million to sustain full rations through to next summer and may have to also soon trim handouts to non-essential projects.
"This is the first time that we are facing such an immediate funding shortfall (in Myanmar)," Silke Buhr Regional Communications Officer for Asia for the UN World Food Programme told AFP.
"The support (from donors) has been really generous up till now," she said, adding donors were currently stretched with other global emergencies.
"We are committed to resuming normal distributions as soon as possible when the funding situation stabilises."
The cuts will be felt in displacement camps in northern Kachin State, where ethnic rebels are battling the army, and Shan State. WFP feeds 70,000 people in the two areas.
But the impact will be widest in eastern Rakhine State, which was convulsed by violence in 2012, leaving dozens dead in clashes and around 140,000 people displaced.
The majority of the displaced are Rohingya Muslims who languish in fetid camps, prone to flooding and disease.
The Rohingya are referred to by the United Nations as one of the world's most persecuted peoples.
They are viewed by local Buddhists and the government as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.
WFP feeds around 130,000 people in displacement camps in Rakhine, though the food is distributed by other NGOs.
Even if it cuts the rice ration the body will continue to distribute the other elements of its "food package" -- which includes pulses -- to all of those it supports, the spokeswoman said.
But the cash crunch means it may be forced to end "take home rations" for 174,000 school children who are given a ration of rice to supplement their nutrition.
Myanmar is among the world's poorest nations, with more than a quarter of the 60 million population living below the poverty line, with the WFP estimating three million people are "food poor"
The reform-minded government is hoping to spur an economic revival after years of calcifying military rule that will pull huge numbers out off poverty.
