https://arab.news/4krs7
Humanitarian aid is often framed as charity. In reality, it is one of the most cost-effective tools the international system has for maintaining stability. When it is reduced or withdrawn, the consequences are not confined to human suffering. They ripple outward into security, migration and regional politics. What we are witnessing today is a subtle but dangerous shift: aid cuts are no longer just a symptom of donor fatigue, they are becoming a driver of geopolitical instability.
Nowhere is this clearer than in the case of the Rohingya.
Nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees remain in camps in Bangladesh, the vast majority concentrated in Cox’s Bazar. For years, this population has depended almost entirely on international assistance for food, shelter and basic services. Yet funding for the Rohingya response has consistently fallen short. In recent cycles, the UN’s Joint Response Plan has struggled to reach even 60 percent of the required funding. The consequences have been immediate and measurable.
Where aid recedes, governance weakens. Where governance weakens, nonstate actors step in
