Food insecurity in the Cox’s Bazar camps is expected to worsen between September and December, with 35 percent of Rohingya projected to face Crisis-level hunger or worse and 10 percent facing even more severe Emergency conditions.
by RK Desk
- Food insecurity in the Cox’s Bazar camps is expected to worsen between September and December, with 35 percent of Rohingya projected to face Crisis-level hunger or worse and 10 percent facing even more severe Emergency conditions.
- Children Face Growing Malnutrition Risk
- Hunger Is Connected to Prolonged Displacement
- IPC Data Shows Deteriorating Food Security
- Families Forced to Make Harder Choices
- A Crisis of Rights as Well as Food
Cox’s Bazar, 25 August 2026: More than one in three Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar are projected to face serious food insecurity in the final months of 2026, as declining humanitarian funding and limited livelihood opportunities deepen hunger across the camps.
According to Save the Children, 35 percent of the approximately 1.2 million people living in the Rohingya camps are expected to face IPC Phase 3, or Crisis-level acute food insecurity, or worse between September and December.
The figure includes around 10 percent projected to face IPC Phase 4, or Emergency conditions, where households experience even larger food-consumption gaps and a higher risk of acute malnutrition.
The projected proportion facing Crisis-level hunger or worse is up from around 30 percent last year.
The figures are projections rather than a measure showing that all affected households are already experiencing those conditions.
But they point to a worsening food-security situation as humanitarian agencies struggle with funding shortages and Rohingya families remain heavily dependent on assistance.
Children Face Growing Malnutrition Risk
Save the Children warned that worsening hunger is placing children at greater risk of acute malnutrition.
Children under five, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers are particularly vulnerable when families cannot consistently access nutritious food.
The organisation highlighted the case of a three-year-old Rohingya child who was treated for severe acute malnutrition at its Maternal and Child Health Hospital in the camps.
The child’s mother said she had struggled to eat adequately during pregnancy because the family did not have enough money.
Her son was born with low birth weight and later developed repeated health problems before being referred for treatment.
The individual case does not represent every Rohingya family, but it illustrates how prolonged food insecurity can affect children even before birth.
Save the Children said maternal malnutrition can increase the risk of low birth weight and childhood malnutrition, which in severe cases can contribute to long-term health problems or death.
Hunger Is Connected to Prolonged Displacement
The deterioration comes nine years after Myanmar military operations forced more than 700,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh in 2017.
Since then, Rohingya refugees have remained heavily dependent on humanitarian assistance while facing severe restrictions on formal employment and livelihood opportunities.
Funding cuts by international donors have reduced resources available for food, healthcare, education and other essential services.
Save the Children said declining assistance has compounded existing problems including overcrowding, limited access to clean water and insufficient access to nutritious food.
Golam Mostofa, head of Save the Children’s Cox’s Bazar Area Office, said the growing hunger crisis could not be separated from the prolonged displacement of the Rohingya.
“Hunger and malnutrition is not simply the result of a lack of food,” he said. “It is the consequence of a crisis that has been allowed to continue unresolved for nearly a decade.”
He said Rohingya children needed not only food assistance but protection, education, dignity and a pathway towards a more secure future.
IPC Data Shows Deteriorating Food Security
The latest warning is consistent with analysis published by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC.
For the May–August 2026 period, around 30 percent of the Rohingya population in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char was already assessed as facing IPC Phase 3 conditions or worse.
The IPC projects food insecurity to deteriorate further across Bangladesh during September–December and recommends expanded food and nutrition assistance for vulnerable populations, including Rohingya refugees.
It specifically calls for stronger nutrition support for children under five and pregnant and breastfeeding women.
IPC classifications are based on a multi-agency methodology used to assess the severity of acute food insecurity.
Phase 3, or Crisis, indicates that households are experiencing serious food-consumption gaps or are forced to use damaging coping strategies to meet basic food needs.
Phase 4, or Emergency, represents a more severe level of deprivation and significantly greater risk to health and nutrition.
Families Forced to Make Harder Choices
For Rohingya families, worsening food insecurity can extend far beyond hunger itself.
When assistance is insufficient, families may borrow money, reduce the number or quality of meals, sell essential belongings or take other desperate measures to survive.
Humanitarian agencies have also repeatedly warned that declining services and limited livelihoods can increase exposure to exploitation, child labour, early marriage, trafficking and dangerous migration.
Save the Children said worsening camp conditions have contributed to some Rohingya attempting dangerous sea journeys in search of safety or opportunity elsewhere.
These journeys expose refugees to smugglers, trafficking, detention and death at sea.
A Crisis of Rights as Well as Food
The worsening hunger projection comes as Rohingya communities mark nine years since the mass displacement of August 2017.
For many families, the food crisis reflects a broader failure to provide durable options.
Rohingya remain unable to return safely to their homeland, while restrictions in Bangladesh severely limit their ability to build independent livelihoods.
As a result, reductions in humanitarian funding can translate almost immediately into reductions in food, healthcare and other essential support.
Save the Children has called on international donors to close the humanitarian funding gap and urged governments to protect refugee rights while pursuing long-term solutions.
For Rohingya families, the figures underline a deeper problem: after nine years in exile, access to enough food still depends heavily on whether international donors continue to fund their survival.
Without stronger assistance and a credible path towards rights, livelihoods and safe return, the next phase of the crisis risks being defined not only by prolonged displacement, but by increasingly severe hunger.
