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.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story