BANGKOK (AP) — The United Nations food agency said on Friday that more than 1 million people in the war-torn nation of Myanmar will be cut off from food assistance due to critical funding shortfalls.
A statement released by the World Food Program said that most food rations currently distributed in Myanmar will be cut off in April, even as the country faces a desperate humanitarian crisis caused by bitter fighting between the military government and powerful militias opposed to its rule. The WFP said it would need $60 million to continue food assistance in Myanmar and called on its partners to identify additional funding.
It was not immediately clear if the WFP’s decision was directly related to the Trump administration's recent moves to stop most foreign aid and dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, which have had wide-ranging effects on humanitarian efforts around the globe.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric, asked whether the Myanmar funding cuts were a result of the U.S. cuts, told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York: “It's all co-mingled,” stressing that the U.S. is a big funder of WFP.
He said all U.N. agencies are actively engaging with U.S. authorities “to explain to them the damage — the immediate damage that's been done.”
A 90-day freeze on foreign assistance programs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump has led to other cuts in services for refugees from Myanmar, including the shutdown of hospital care in camps in neighboring Thailand where more than 100,000 are living, according to activists and Thai officials.
The U.S. has been a “core contributor in the food security and livelihood sector in Myanmar,” and there was already a shortfall last year with humanitarian needs only about 40% funded, said a senior leader in the aid sector based in Asia, who spoke on condition of anonymity to freely discuss the issue.
The new cuts, she said, have created a “devastating situation,” forcing NGOs to abandon many programs, hitting vulnerable populations like people with disabilities, women and children the hardest, she said.
“The lifesaving work must continue,” she said. “It’s just not possible for us to stop that because if we stop it means people will not survive. But the funding gap we’re facing has forced us to close programs that are the lifeline, I think, for many people, in Myanmar.”
The nationwide armed conflict in Myanmar began after the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and suppressed widespread nonviolent protests that sought a return to democratic rule.
In Friday’s statement, the WFP said 15.2 million people, nearly one-third of the total population, are unable to meet their minimum daily food needs, and some 2.3 million face emergency levels of hunger.
The WFP said it will only be able to assist 35,000 of the most vulnerable people, including children under the age of 5, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and people living with disabilities.
“The impending cuts will have a devastating impact on the most vulnerable communities across the country, many of whom depend entirely on WFP’s support to survive,” said Michael Dunford, WFP’s Representative and Country Director in Myanmar. “WFP remains steadfast in its commitment to support the people of Myanmar, but more immediate funding is crucial to continue reaching those in need.”
The WFP said the cuts will also impact almost 100,000 internally displaced people, including Rohingya communities in camps in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine, who will have no access to food without WFP assistance.
The Rohingya, a Muslim minority, have long been persecuted in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. More than 700,000 have fled from Myanmar to refugee camps in Bangladesh since August 2017, when the military launched a clearance operation against the minority in response to attacks by a rebel group.
More than 600,000 Rohingya remain in Myanmar, confined to squalid displacement camps, in addition to those living in crowded refugee camps in Bangladesh. Still, more have fled toward Bangladesh and elsewhere in recent months as violence surged again when a group called the Arakan Army started fighting against Myanmar’s security forces.
FILE - Local residents carrying food wade through a flooded road in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo, File)
FILE - A Rohingya woman travels with a bag of rice that her family received through World Food Program close to Bawda Pa refugee camp, outskirts Sittwe, Rakhine state, Myanmar, Jan. 15, 2014. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe, File)
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The relative calm of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came to an abrupt end on Tuesday, when Israel launched dozens of attacks on targets across the Gaza Strip. Palestinian hospital officials say more than 250 people have been killed, including women and children. Israel says the operation is open-ended and expected to expand, raising fears of the 17-month-old war fully reigniting.
Here's what to know about how the strikes came about and what might come next.
The ceasefire agreed to in mid-January was a three-phase plan, the first of which actually ended two weeks ago. Israel balked at entering substantive negotiations over the second phase, which were meant to lead to a long-term ceasefire, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the return of all hostages taken by Hamas in its Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that started the war.
The ceasefire was supposed to continue as long as talks over the second phase went on, according to the agreement reached after more than a year of negotiations mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
During the first phase, Hamas returned 25 living hostages and the remains of eight others in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces also withdrew to buffer zones inside Gaza, and hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians returned to northern Gaza. No further hostage releases were called for under the agreement until the second phase.
Hundreds of aid trucks had been entering daily. But two weeks ago, Israel cut off all food, medicine, fuel, electricity and other supplies to the territory’s around 2 million people to pressure Hamas to accept a new proposal.
The new plan would require Hamas to release half its remaining hostages — the militant group’s main bargaining chip — in exchange for a ceasefire extension and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Israel made no mention of releasing more Palestinian prisoners — a key component of the first phase.
Hamas refused the new proposal, accusing Israel of trying to sabotage the existing agreement.
Unless mediators step in, Israel's surprise attack could mean a full return to fighting in a 17-month war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and caused widespread destruction across Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly threatened to resume the war, said he ordered the strikes because of Hamas' rejection of the new proposal. He said Israel “will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength."
The White House said it had been consulted and voiced support for Israel’s actions.
Hamas accused Netanyahu of upending the ceasefire agreement and exposing the remaining hostages ”to an unknown fate.” In a statement, it called on mediators to hold Israel “fully responsible for violating and overturning the agreement.”
The attack came during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. No major fighting has occurred in Gaza since the ceasefire took hold on Jan. 19, but Israeli strikes have killed dozens of Palestinians who the military said had entered unauthorized areas, engaged in militant activities or otherwise violated the truce.
Netanyahu has come under mounting domestic pressure, with mass protests planned over his handling of the hostage crisis and his decision to fire the head of Israel’s internal security agency.
Families of hostages still held in Gaza expressed concern Tuesday over their loved ones. “We are shocked, angry, and terrified by the deliberate dismantling of the process to return our loved ones from the terrible captivity of Hamas,” the Hostages Families Forum said.
But Netanyahu has also faced demands from his hard-line allies not to allow any deal in Gaza that falls short of Hamas' destruction. Negotiations with Hamas over a second phase could have brought pressure for compromises over how Gaza will be ruled in the future.
Netanyahu's critics say his firing of the security agency chief and a string of other dismissals are part of a broader campaign aimed at undermining independent government institutions.
They say he’s doing this to maintain power while on trial for alleged corruption and facing public pressure to accept his own responsibility for policy failures in the lead-up to Hamas' surprise attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
A resumption of fighting in Gaza could have repercussions around the region.
Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels denounced the Israeli strikes, saying “the Palestinian people will not be left alone in this battle" — indicating a possible resumption of the Houthis' strikes on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The United States launched a new airstrikes over the weekend targeting the Houthis in Yemen in retaliation for its attacks on shipping. At least 53 people were reported killed. ore.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday warned Iran would “suffer the consequences” for any further Houthi attacks, threatening to widen the conflict further.
New Gaza violence could also shake the ceasefire that Israel reached with Hezbollah in November, which stopped months of deadly exchanges of fire over the Israeli-Lebanon border.
Rising reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Lee Keath in Cairo and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
The body of a Palestinian killed in an Israeli army airstrikes is brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - EDS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT.- Palestinians hold the hands of their relative who was killed in an Israeli army airstrike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Karem Hanna)
The bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli army airstrikes are brought to Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A body of a Palestinian killed in an Israeli army airstrikes is brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
The body of a Palestinian killed in an Israeli army airstrikes is brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
