logo
UN slightly reduces rations for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

UN slightly reduces rations for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

Yahoo27-03-2025
By Ruma Paul
DHAKA (Reuters) - The United Nations World Food Programme has managed to sustain food assistance for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, though rations have been slightly reduced due to funding shortages, officials said on Thursday.
Under the revised system, each refugee in the world's largest refugee settlement in the southeastern border district of Cox's Bazar will receive $12 per month, down from the previous $12.50.
Earlier this month, WFP warned that without urgent financial support, it might be forced to halve food rations to just $6 per person in April. A similar reduction in 2023, which lowered food rations to $8 per person, led to a sharp increase in malnutrition before it was reversed.
"We are deeply grateful. At least we can now survive. Otherwise, we would simply be starving," Joinul Mostafa, a Rohingya refugee in Cox's Bazar, told Reuters.
A WFP spokesperson said it bridged the funding gap 'with timely contributions from donors,' without giving details. Separately, the U.S. said on Thursday it will provide $73 million in new financial aid to Rohingya refugees through the WFP.
Bangladesh is sheltering more than 1 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.
About 70,000 Rohingya from Myanmar fled to Bangladesh last year, driven in part by growing hunger in their home state of Rakhine.
The Office of Bangladesh's Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, which oversees refugee camps, said the food rations will help sustain food security and nutrition among the refugees.
'We also urge the international community to step forward with the necessary funding so that these life-saving programs can be sustained in the long term," it said in a statement.
Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi officials have worried that cuts would worsen hunger, curtail critical healthcare and fuel crime, while increasing the risks of human trafficking and radicalization. The Inter-Sector Coordination Group, which oversees relief operations, said about 300,000 refugees have already faced disruptions in healthcare services.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Jeju Air jet still had a working engine when it crashed, investigation update says
Jeju Air jet still had a working engine when it crashed, investigation update says

Yahoo

time15 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Jeju Air jet still had a working engine when it crashed, investigation update says

By Lisa Barrington, Heekyong Yang and Dan Catchpole SEOUL (Reuters) -A Jeju Air plane that crashed in December during an emergency landing after a bird strike could have kept flying on the damaged engine that was still working after pilots shut down the other one, according to an update from South Korean investigators. The Boeing 737-800 instead belly-landed at Muan airport without its landing gear down, overshot the runway and erupted into a fireball after slamming into an embankment, killing all but two of the 181 people on board. Investigators have not yet produced a final report into the deadliest air disaster on South Korean soil, but information about the plane's two engines has begun to emerge. According to a July 19 update prepared by investigators and seen by Reuters but not publicly released following complaints from victims' family members, the left engine sustained less damage than the right following a bird strike, but the left engine was shut down 19 seconds after the bird strike. The right engine experienced a "surge" and emitted flames and black smoke, but investigators said it "was confirmed to be generating output sufficient for flight," in the five-page update, which included post-crash photos of both engines. No reason for the crew's actions was given and the probe is expected to last months as investigators reconstruct the plane's technical state and the picture understood by its pilots. Experts say most air accidents are caused by multiple factors and caution against putting too much weight on incomplete evidence. MORE QUESTIONS So far, public attention has focused on the possibility that the crew may have shut down the less-damaged engine, rekindling memories of a 1989 Boeing 737-400 crash in Kegworth, England, where pilots shut down a non-damaged engine by mistake. The disaster led to multiple changes in regulations including improvements in crew communication and emergency procedures. A source told Reuters on Monday that the South Korea-led probe had "clear evidence" that pilots had shut off the less-damaged left engine after the bird strike, citing the cockpit voice recorder, computer data and a switch found in the wreckage. But the latest update on the crash also raises the possibility that even the more heavily damaged engine that was still running could have kept the plane aloft for longer. It did not say what level of performance the operating engine still had, nor what extra options that might have given to the plane's emergency-focused crew before the jet doubled back and landed in the opposite direction of the runway from its initial plan with its landing gear up. Both engines contained bird strike damage and both experienced engine vibrations after the strike. The right engine showed significant internal damage, the Korean-language update from South Korea's Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board (ARAIB) said, but it did not describe the damage found in the left engine. The update did not say how the left engine was operating nor the state of systems connected to either engine, said former U.S. National Transportation Safety Board investigator Greg Feith when shown the document translated by Reuters. It contains some new facts but omits far more, resulting in a "cryptic" document, he said. ARAIB, which plans to issue a final report next June, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Safety experts say it is common for early reports to contain sparse facts and limited analysis while investigations continue. A preliminary report released in January said feathers and blood stains from ducks were found in both engines. The engines - made by CFM International, jointly owned by GE and France's Safran - were examined in May and no defects or fault data were found beyond the bird and crash damage, the report said. Families of those who died in the disaster were briefed on the engine findings but asked investigators not to release the July 19 report, saying that it appeared to apportion blame to the pilots without exploring other factors. The report was withheld but Reuters and South Korean media obtained copies. Boeing and GE referred questions about the crash to ARAIB. Safran did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Jeju Air has previously said it is cooperating with ARAIB and is awaiting publication of the investigation. Under global aviation rules, civil air investigations aim to discover crash causes without assigning blame or liability. The Jeju Air pilots' union said ARAIB was "misleading the public" by suggesting there was no problem with the left engine given that bird remains were found in both. A source who attended the briefing told Reuters that investigators told family members the left engine also experienced a disruptive "surge," citing black box data. The pilot union and representatives of bereaved families have asked that evidence be released to support any findings. Relatives say the investigation also needs to focus on the embankment containing navigation equipment, which safety experts have said likely contributed to the high death toll. Global aviation standards call for any navigation equipment in line with runways to be installed on structures that easily give way in case of impact with an aircraft. South Korea's transport ministry has identified seven domestic airports, including Muan, with structures made of concrete or steel, rather than materials that break apart on impact and has said it will improve them. Designs for the new structures are in progress, a ministry official told Reuters last week. Solve the daily Crossword

The food is just outside the border. But getting it to Gaza's starving is a chaotic process.
The food is just outside the border. But getting it to Gaza's starving is a chaotic process.

NBC News

timea day ago

  • NBC News

The food is just outside the border. But getting it to Gaza's starving is a chaotic process.

Aid agencies say they would like to deliver aid, but that Israel has riddled the process with delays and denials, changing schedules and routes, sometimes at the last minute, making it difficult or impossible to safely retrieve the aid for distribution. Half of the 138 requests the World Food Programme made in the last week to collect aid from holding sites were denied, the agency said Friday. Even after being approved to load the aid, WFP said 'convoys are typically delayed,' and take as much as 46 hours before receiving the final approval to travel along the Strip. Israel has long maintained that the restrictions are in place to prevent Hamas from stealing the food, though an internal U.S. government analysis cited by Reuters has found no evidence that there was systematic theft of the supplies by Hamas over the past 20 months. WFP on Friday said it had 300 trucks of aid waiting to be distributed inside Gaza, and UNRWA said it had about 6,000 aid trucks in Jordan and Egypt also waiting to be approved. 'Allow the U.N., including UNRWA & our partners to operate at scale & without bureaucratic or political hurdles,' Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA's Commissioner-General, said Saturday in a post on X. Lazzarini also slammed Israel for allowing aid airdrops by foreign countries, calling it a "distraction & screensmoke." A previous effort to air drop aid in March last year proved insufficient for feeding the population, as humanitarian agencies warned at the time. Delayed convoys Each delayed convoy means more and increasingly desperate people gathering along known aid delivery routes, waiting to intercept incoming trucks. This has led to people ambushing the aid trucks, which agencies say poses a danger to their workers. 'During these delays crowds of hungry people often anticipate the arrival of our trucks and gather along the expected transport routes which are too few,' the WFP said. Israeli troops have fired at gathering crowds, and the number of people killed in these separate but regular incidents have totaled to over 1000, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Wednesday. Incidents near the distribution sites run by the U.S. and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation have been particularly violent. Um Saeed Al-Reefi had walked to a distribution site near Rafah on Thursday, and spoke to NBC News' team on the ground, still holding her empty bags. "I just want to feed my daughter something. But they attacked us—pepper spray, bullets, gas. I couldn't breathe. I ran for my life. I came back, as you see… empty-handed," she said. NBC News has not independently verified her account of the attack. On Friday, at least 16 people were killed northwest of Gaza City while waiting for aid, Dr. Khalil Al-Daqran, a spokesperson for Gaza's Health Ministry told NBC News. "What is missing right now is safe, sustained access," the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday. "Workers face constant danger, crossings are unreliable, and critical items are routinely blocked," it said. Aid distribution in Gaza has not always been this deficient, or fatal. Last year, when aid was being let in through Rafah crossing along the Egyptian border, delivery, though sparse, was regular and U.N. agencies, primarily UNRWA, were able to distribute aid without widespread attacks or looting. Gaza's police force was also more present and provided security, but months of Israeli bombing have crippled the police and increased desperation among the public.

Serious safety violations found at Russian airline a month before fatal crash, Izvestia says
Serious safety violations found at Russian airline a month before fatal crash, Izvestia says

Yahoo

time2 days ago

  • Yahoo

Serious safety violations found at Russian airline a month before fatal crash, Izvestia says

MOSCOW (Reuters) -A spot check on Angara Airlines, which operated the Antonov An-24 plane which crashed in Russia's far east on Thursday killing all 48 on board, had uncovered serious safety violations a month beforehand, the Izvestia news outlet reported on Friday. The plane, which was 49 years old, crashed as it prepared to land, in an incident that highlighted the use of old, Soviet-era aircraft and raised questions about their viability, with Western sanctions limiting access to investment and spare parts. Russia's transport ministry said on Friday that aviation and transport regulators would investigate the privately-owned Angara's activities to check if it is complying with federal aviation rules before taking a decision about its future. Vasily Orlov, the governor of the Amur region where the plane came down, said on Friday that investigators were working on the crash site and that there were two main theories about what had caused it: technical failure and pilot error. The plane's black boxes had been recovered and were being sent to Moscow to be studied, he said. Citing documents it had seen from Russia's airline and transport regulators, Izvestia said that transport safety inspectors had carried out a spot check on Angara in June which had uncovered concerns related to the servicing of its planes. Eight of Angara's planes had been temporarily grounded due to the inspection, it said, and four of its technical staff temporarily banned from carrying out technical inspections. Angara and Rostransnadzor, the transport regulator, did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Reuters could not independently verify the details of the inspection. Izvestia said that inspectors had drawn attention to the fact that the company's documents had shown that planes had sometimes purportedly been serviced by staff who other documents showed were not working on the relevant days. The standard rules and methods of servicing were also not being followed by staff, some of whom did not have the necessary qualifications for such work, Izvestia said. In one instance, documents showed that a special piece of testing equipment needed to check a plane's control panel had not been physically issued even though other documents showed someone had signed off that the test had been done. "I ask you to present a plan to fix the violations identified, a report about the reasons for them, and measures being taken to ensure they do not occur," a letter from Rostransnadzor, the transport regulator, to Angara sent after the inspection said, according to Izvestia.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store