UN chief vows to 'speak loud' to avert ration cuts for Rohingyas in Bangladesh

Highlights:

• Visiting Rohingya camps, Guterres warned of food ration cuts due to a funding shortfall
• He calls for urgent international support to avoid hunger in the overcrowded camps

The United Nations will do all it can to help prevent food rations being cut for Rohingya refugees in camps in Bangladesh, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday during a visit to the world's largest refugee settlement.

Guterres visited the border district of Cox's Bazar, in southern Bangladesh, after the UN World Food Programme announced potential cuts to food rations for the Rohingya refugees due to a funding shortfall.

Bangladesh is sheltering more than one million Rohingya - members of a persecuted Muslim minority who fled violent purges in neighbouring Myanmar - in camps in the Cox's Bazar district, where they have limited access to jobs or education.

Guterres said "dramatic" cuts in humanitarian aid announced by the United States and European countries meant there was a risk of food rations to the camp being reduced.

"I will be talking to all countries in the world that can support us in order to make sure that funds are made available to avoid a situation in which people would suffer even more," Guterres said.

The WFP has said it may reduce food rations for the Rohingya from $12.50 to $6 per month from April because of a lack of funding, raising fears among aid workers of rising hunger in the overcrowded camps.

"My voice will speak loud to the international community, saying we need urgently more support because this population badly needs that support to be able to live in dignity here in Bangladesh," Guterres said.

Later, accompanied by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the head of Bangladesh's interim government, Guterres said Cox's Bazar was "ground zero" for the impact of budget cuts on people in desperate need.

"UN agencies — as well as many humanitarian and development NGOs — are confronting the prospect of enormous funding cuts. This will have a direct and dire impact on people," he said.

Guterres was speaking as tens of thousands of Rohingya participated in the Iftar - the meal eaten by Muslims at sunset to break their fast during Ramadan - holding placards that read, "UN, take us back to our home!" and "We are Rohingya, not Stateless!"

The WFP said this month the reduction was due to a broad shortfall in donations, not a decision by US President Donald Trump's administration to cut US foreign aid globally.

But a senior Bangladeshi official told Reuters the US cuts likely played a role as the US has been the top donor for Rohingya refugee aid.

"Whatever we are given now is not enough. If that's halved, we are simply going to starve," said Mohammed Sabir, a 31-year-old refugee from Myanmar who has lived in the camps since fleeing violence in 2017.