WFP Provides Food To People Fleeing Myanmar Violence | WPN World People News

WFP is distributing food to people fleeing into Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. An estimated 146,000 people have streamed across the border into the district of Cox’s Bazar since 25 August.

People newly arrived in Cox’s Bazar from Myanmar queue up to receive an emergency ration of high-energy biscuits.

So far WFP has provided more than 28,800 new arrivals with a three-day supply of high-energy biscuits, while 28,000 people have received a hot meal of khichuri, a kind of rice and lentil dish, through communal kitchens where WFP supplies rice. 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.

WFP 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. Going forward WFP plans to reach more people and continue providing energy biscuits to families as they arrive, followed by 50kg of rice per month for four months.

“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,” said Dipayan Bhattacharya, WFP’s Deputy Country Director in Bangladesh.

WFP needs 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.

Source:World Food Programme