Media Home
UN Web TV
UN PhotoUnifeed
GENEVA / WFP RAKHINE STATE
STORY: GENEVA / WFP RAKHINE STATE
TRT: 01:23
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 27 OCTOBER 2017, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
27 OCTOBER 2017, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, Palais des Nations exterior
2. Wide shot, Press Room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Bettina Luescher, Spokesperson, World Food Programme (WFP):
“WFP has been given the green light to resume food assistance operation in the northern part of Rakhine state and we are currently coordinating with the government to work out the details. But I want to caution it’s lots of details, lots of discussions are going on.”
4. Med shot, journalist
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Bettina Luescher, Spokesperson, World Food Programme (WFP):
“We don’t have a timeline yet, for that. So, I think everybody, we’re talking with the government to see when we can do it and how to do it.”
6. Med shot, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Marixie Mercado, Spokesperson, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF):
“UNICEF screened 340 children. This was a rough and rapid exercise to identify children who needed immediate life-saving treatment.”
8. Close up, journalist
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Marixie Mercado, Spokesperson, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF):
“This is an extremely small number of children so these numbers are not representative. But what they do tell us, is that at least some of the children are close to death by the time they make it across the border.”
10. Wide shot, podium
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Marixie Mercado, Spokesperson, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF):
“The combination of malnutrition, sanitary conditions, and disease in the refugee settlement is potentially catastrophic for children.”
12. Med shots, journalists
The World Food Programme (WFP) said it have been given the “green light” by the authorities in Myanmar to resume food assistance operations in northern Rakhine state, whose population has not received critical food aid since late August 2017.
Speaking to journalists in Geneva today (27 Oct), WFP spokesperson Bettina Luescher said the Programme is currently coordinating with the Myanmar government to work out the details but cautioned, “it’s lots of details, lots of discussions are going on.”
WFP has not had access to northern Rakhine since late August 2017. Before August 25, WFP supported over 110,000 people in northern Rakhine providing critical food assistance to both ethnic Rakhine and Rohingya populations.
Luescher stressed that WFP was still in the process of establishing the details and timeline for this new access. She said, “We’re talking with the government to see when we can do it and how to do it.”
UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado reported that many Rohingya children are severely malnourished and in a state of near death by the time they cross the border as refugees into Bangladesh. She said UNICEF screened 340 children adding that “this was a rough and rapid exercise to identify children who needed immediate life-saving treatment” with regards to the recent nutrition screening done to new arrivals in Bangladesh. Mercado said this was “an extremely small number of children so these numbers are not representative.” She noted, however, that the cases indicate that “at least some of the children are close to death by the time they make it across the border.”
Both WFP and UNICEF raised concerns over the degree of malnutrition recorded in both the Rohingya population that remains in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state, and the population that is now living in settlements as refugees in Bangladesh. Marcado said the combination of “malnutrition, sanitary conditions, and disease in the refugee settlement is potentially catastrophic for children.”
Download
There is no media available to download.
