Staff Reporter :
The number of children requiring emergency treatment for severe acute malnutrition in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh has surged by 27 per cent in February 2025 compared to the same period last year, as worsening conditions push more young children into life-threatening hunger, according to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
In Cox’s Bazar, where over one million Rohingya refugees – including more than 500,000 children – live in the world’s largest refugee settlement, families are facing emergency levels of malnutrition.
Over 15 per cent of children in the camps are now malnourished – the highest levels recorded since the mass displacement of Rohingya refugees in 2017.
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 per cent recovered, but without urgent and sustained intervention, severe acute malnutrition can be fatal.
The crisis is worsening. In January 2025, cases of severe acute malnutrition rose by 25 per cent compared to the same month last year (from 819 to 1,021 cases).
February saw an even sharper increase of 27 per cent (from 836 to 1,062 cases), marking a dangerous upward trend.
This surge is driven by multiple compounding factors: prolonged monsoon rains in 2024, which worsened sanitation and triggered spikes in severe diarrhoea and outbreaks of cholera and dengue; the impact of intermittent food ration cuts over the previous two years, which has further deteriorated diet quality; and an increasing number of families fleeing violence and seeking shelter in the camps in recent months, according to UNICEF.
Meanwhile, Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus and UN Secretary-General António Guterres are set to visit the Rohingya refugee camps in Ukhiya, Cox’s Bazar, on Friday.
Their visit has sparked hope among the Rohingya community, who see it as an opportunity to address the recent reduction in food aid by the World Food Programme (WFP), which has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the camps.
Additionally, the visit has raised expectations among the Rohingya community regarding discussions on their safe repatriation to Myanmar.
While this is not Guterres’ first visit to the camps-his last being in 2018-this marks the first visit by the Chief Adviser to the Rohingya camps.
Mohammad Zubair, chairman of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, told the media, “The general Rohingya population is thrilled by the news of the UN Secretary-General’s visit.
We will urge him to push for sustainable repatriation under UN supervision and the establishment of a safe zone in Rakhine. We will also discuss the negative impact of food aid reductions on our lives.”
Rohingya refugees in the overcrowded Bangladeshi camps have expressed concern over a U.S. decision to cut food rations by half beginning next month.
A refugee official has warned that this reduction will impact the nutrition of more than one million refugees and create “social and mental pressure.”
Former U.S. President Donald Trump had previously halted most foreign aid and dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, significantly hampering the global humanitarian sector.
Trump’s executive order on 20 January froze funding for a 90-day review, affecting crucial aid programmes.
UNICEF Representative in Bangladesh, Rana Flowers, reported that last month in the camps in Cox’s Bazar, admissions for severe acute malnutrition surged by over 27 per cent compared to February 2024, with more than 38 children under five admitted for emergency care every day.
“Unless additional resources are secured, only half of the children in need will have access to treatment this year, leaving around 7,000 children at risk, with the expectation of increased morbidity and mortality,” Ms. Flowers said. “That’s babies dying.”
Ms. Flowers further stated that “other U.S. grants for Bangladesh have been terminated,” representing about a quarter of UNICEF’s Rohingya refugee response costs.
Without this funding, “services for these children will be significantly scaled back, putting their survival, safety, and futures at risk.”
Bangladesh currently hosts more than one million stateless Rohingya refugees who were driven from their homes in neighbouring Myanmar following a brutal military crackdown in 2017.
Among them, approximately 500,000 Rohingya children live in the camps of Cox’s Bazar.
