Almost a quarter of Rohingya children under five who fled to Bangladesh in the past two months are suffering from acute malnutrition, according to new assessment data from Save the Children and four other organisations.
The assessment is being carried out by Save the Children, Action contre la Faim, UNHCR, Unicef and World Food Program.
The research describes about a third of those children are ‘severely’ malnourished, meaning they are nine times more likely to die than the children who are not malnourished. They are significantly more vulnerable to infections and diseases like watery diarrhoea and chest infections.
Save the Children’s Emergency Nutrition Advisor in Cox’s Bazar Nicki Connell said: “The situation is worse than we feared.”
“After arriving in Bangladesh the malnourished children have to rely on food rations to survive, where hygiene standards are poor, and safe drinking water is hard to come by,” she added.
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The assessment also says even adults are suffering from malnutrition as well, which is a major crisis at this moment.
The preliminary assessment data, gathered over the past two weeks, collected information on the health and feeding practices of young children and women across 405 households in one of the settlements where newly arrived Rohingya live.
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According to Save the Children, the aid agency is already running two primary health care clinics on the outskirts of the camps. They are setting up seven more clinics to meet the growing health needs.
Earlier this week, Save the Children opened a treatment centre for malnourished children next to its clinic in the Kutupalong extension camp, with other centres scheduled to open within the next two weeks.
According to International Organization for Migration (IOM), 607,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district since August 25.
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
