UN World Food Programme to cut food aid to more than one million in Myanmar

A woman travels on a bicycle cart with a bag of rice that her family received through the World Food Programme (Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP)

The United Nations food agency said on Friday that more than one million people in war-torn Myanmar will be cut off from food assistance because of critical funding shortfalls.

A statement from the World Food Programme 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.