UN to cut food aid for Rohingya, citing fund shortfall

DIre straits: A boat carrying 69 Rohingya Muslims is seen stranded after it arrived at Lampanah beach, in Aceh province, on Thursday. — Reuters

The United Nations plans to slash food aid to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, blaming a funding shortfall for cuts that agencies warned would deepen food insecurity and malnutrition in the world’s largest refugee settlement.

About 730,000 Rohingya, a persecuted mostly Muslim minority from Myanmar’s Rakhine state, fled to Bangladesh in 2017 to escape an army crackdown the UN said was carried out with genocidal intent.