11.3m Bangladeshis faced acute food insecurity in 2023
As many as 11.9 million people, including more than 6,00,000 Rohingya refugees, were projected to have faced "high levels of acute food insecurity" in Bangladesh in 2023, according to the latest global report on food crises by the Food Security Information Network (FSIN).
Extreme weather events, economic shocks, global wars, and high levels of domestic inflation have particularly affected the acute food insecurity of these people, said the report.
The FSIN released its report on Wednesday. Sixteen international organisations, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Food Programme, are members of the network. It is funded by the European Union.
The report also mentioned that food insecurity worsened around the world in 2023, with some 282 million people suffering from acute hunger due to conflicts, particularly in Gaza and Sudan.
"Cox's Bazar district has been included in the GRFC as a major food crisis since 2017, due to the arrival of around 7,50,000 refugees from Rakhine State in Myanmar," the report said.
According to the report, in 2023, an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis expanded coverage to approximately 30 percent of the country and 23 percent of its population, focusing on areas prone to climatic disasters -- monsoon floods, cyclones, tidal surges, landslides and riverbank erosion -- as well as forcibly displaced Rohingya refugees and host communities in Cox's Bazar.
"Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to disasters, and there is no prospect of dignified return of Rohingya refugees in the foreseeable future," the report said.
According to the report, food prices remained high with food inflation reaching 7.8 percent in January 2023 and 12.6 percent by the end of October, despite record cereal harvests in 2022 and 2023.
"This marked the highest food inflation for over a decade, stemming from the country's reliance on the Russian Federation and Ukraine for imports of fuel, essential food commodities like wheat, and fertiliser and livestock feed. The war in Ukraine disrupted supplies of these commodities, which, coupled with steep currency depreciation and decreased foreign reserves, drove up the cost of producing domestic cereals at a time of lower cereal imports," the report said.
Meanwhile, atypical monsoon floods in 2022 impacted over 7 million people and displaced over 2 million mainly in the northeast region of Bangladesh, the report said, adding that the victims claimed widespread asset loss and damage which weakened their households' ability to cope with shocks in 2023.
The report also highlighted the severe flash floods and landslides in Chattogram (including Cox's Bazar) and Sylhet divisions, which affected 1.3 million people.
On the other hand, "Rohingya refugees have no foreseeable prospect of return to Myanmar due to the country's protracted conflict that escalated in both 2022 and 2023.
Tensions between the Rohingya refugees and vulnerable host community members are widening due to the strain on labour market opportunities, incomes, land, and drinking water sources," the report added.
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