WFP faces 11.2-million-dollar shortfall in Myanmar

Yangon - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday welcomed a donation of 1.9 million dollars from the European Union for food relief for Myanmar's Rohingha minority group but noted it was still suffering a 11.2-million-dollar shortfall this year. The European Community's Humanitarian Office (ECHO) has provided 1.9 million dollars for food assistance to the North Rakhine State of western Myanmar, bordering Bangladesh, where thousands of Rohingha - a Muslim minority group that has been persecuted in the past by Myanmar's junta - face growing food shortages. Up to 400,000 Rohingha were forced to flee Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh in the early 1990s when the army launched a persecution campaign against the Muslim minority. Most of the refugees returned to the Rakhine State more than a decade ago, but lack of land ownership and employment mean the community is still highly dependent on UN assistance for their survival. 'ECHO's generous contribution is extremely welcome and timely. We will now be able to provide the needed support to the most vulnerable households at least until the harvest brings more food into the market,' said Chris Kaye, WFP's Country Director. A recent survey conducted by the WFP indicated that 44 per cent of the households in the North Rakhine State have deficient daily dietary intakes, and 27 per cent of children below five suffered from 'moderate to acute' malnutrition. The Rakhine was not one of the areas affected by Cyclone Nargis, which swept over Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta and Yangon on May 2-3, leaving 140,000 dead or missing and another 2.4 million desperately in need of emergency relief, but the WFP's ongoing food assistance program to the Rohinghas has been affected by the cyclone. While the international response to the WFP's cyclone relief programme in Myanmar has been adequate, donations to regular programmes such as those feeding the Rohinghas has suffered, said Paul Risley, spokesman in Asia for WFP. The WFP estimates that the price of foods such as rice has doubled in Myanmar over the past year, raising WFP's budget requirements by 44 per cent from 51.7 million dollars in January 2007 to 74.76 million in July 2008. WFP Myanmar is presently facing a shortfall of 11.2 million dollars for its food assistance needs through the end of December 2008, said Risley. 'WFP is very concerned that the critical needs of other beneficiaries in the remote border areas in Myanmar have been wanting, while international assistance in the cyclone-hit delta has been prompt,' he said. Before Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar, the WFP could purchase rice and other foodstuffs on the local market for its assistance programme in the country, but now it is forced to purchase on the international market where prices have jumped dramatically in line with oil prices.