The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is warning that the number of children requiring emergency treatment for severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh has surged by 27 percent in February 2025 compared to the same period last year, pushing more young children into life-threatening hunger. The warning comes as severe cuts in food and nutrition assistance loom, putting the lives of thousands of boys and girls at risk.
In Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar region, where more than one million Rohingya refugees - including more than 500,000 children - live in the world's largest refugee settlement, many families are facing emergency levels of malnutrition.
UNICEF said in a statement on Tuesday that more than 15 percent of children in the refugee camps are now malnourished, the highest level recorded since the mass displacement of Rohingya refugees in 2017.
In August 2017, more than 740,000 Rohingya sought refuge in Cox's Bazar to escape violence and persecution in Myanmar. They joined hundreds of thousands of other Rohingya who had previously fled.
For more than 50 years, members of the Rohingya Muslim minority have fled to neighboring countries, including Bangladesh, to escape persecution and discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
New waves of Rohingya refugees, possibly more than 100,000 people, have entered Bangladesh since 2024, fleeing new persecution and escalating armed conflict in neighboring Myanmar.
Last year, UNICEF provided life-saving treatment to nearly 12,000 children under the age of five suffering from severe acute malnutrition, a condition that leaves children dangerously thin, weak and highly vulnerable to disease. Of those treated, 92 percent recovered, but without urgent and sustained intervention, severe acute malnutrition can be fatal.
UNICEF said the crisis is now deepening as the surge is fueled by multiple exacerbating factors. These include prolonged monsoon rains in 2024, which have worsened sanitation and triggered spikes in severe diarrhea and outbreaks of cholera and dengue.
The malnutrition crisis is also driven by the impact of intermittent food ration cuts over the previous two years, which further exacerbated the poor quality of diets.
In 2023, severe funding constraints forced the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to reduce food vouchers from US$12 to US$8 per person per month, leading to a sharp decline in food consumption and the worst levels of child malnutrition since 2017 - reaching 15 percent - above the emergency threshold.
Rations were later increased as funding was made available, first to US$10 and then to the full ration of US$12.50 per person.
Meanwhile, a growing number of families have fled violence in Myanmar and sought refuge in the camps in Cox's Bazar in recent months. The continued influx of Rohingya seeking safety is putting an even greater strain on already overstretched resources.
In Myanmar's Rakhine State, Rohingya are currently facing another wave of deadly violence, seven years after the military-led campaign in 2017. Last year, tens of thousands were driven from their homes in Myanmar as intense fighting between junta forces and the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group, engulfed the country.
“For now, we can provide the services that Rohingya mothers come seeking, and that very sick children need, but as needs keep rising and funding declines, families are telling us they are terrified of what will happen to their babies if there are further food ration cuts and if lifesaving nutrition treatment services stop,” said Rana Flowers, UNICEF Representative in Bangladesh.
In early 2025, UNICEF estimated that 14,200 children in the Rohingya refugee camps would suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year. Diminishing food rations, poor diets for children, or other factors affecting the provision of safe water and health services in the camps could cause this number to rise significantly.
According to the UN agency, children suffering from SAM are 11 times more likely to die than their well-nourished peers if they do not receive timely treatment.
“These families cannot yet safely return home, and they have no legal right to work, so sustained humanitarian support is not optional – it is essential,” said Flowers.
“UNICEF is determined to stay and deliver for children, but without guaranteed funding, critical services will be at risk.”
The UNICEF warning comes after WFP said on Friday that a critical funding shortfall for its emergency response operations in Bangladesh are jeopardizing food assistance for over one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
The World Food Programme warned that without urgent new funding, monthly rations would be halved to US$6 per person, down from US$12.50 per person. To sustain full rations, WFP urgently requires US$15 million for April, and US$81 million until the end of 2025.
"The Rohingya refugee crisis remains one of the world's largest and most protracted," Dom Scalpelli, WFP Country Director in Bangladesh, said on Friday.
“Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh remain entirely dependent on humanitarian assistance for their survival. Any reduction in food assistance will push them deeper into hunger and force them to resort to desperate measures just to survive.”
Scalpelli added that immediate assistance is urgently needed to prevent this crisis from escalating further.
Further information
Full text: 27 percent surge in number of children admitted for severe acute malnutrition treatment in Rohingya refugee camps, UNICEF, press release, published March 11, 2025
https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/27-cent-surge-number-children-admitted-severe-acute-malnutrition-treatment-rohingya
Full text: WFP appeals for urgent funding to prevent ration cuts to over one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, WFP, press release, published March 7, 2025
https://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-appeals-urgent-funding-prevent-ration-cuts-over-one-million-rohingya-refugees-bangladesh