will worsen inflation.

Associated Press writers Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Tens of thousands of students and youths from a leading Bangladeshi political party rallied in the capital, Dhaka, on Wednesday, calling for a general election in December as discontent grows with the interim government appointed after the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August.

Activists from three groups linked to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP, headed by former Prime Ministergathered on the streets outside its party headquarters, under heightened security.Wednesday’s rally was held after weeks of political tensions after interim leader and Nobel Peace laureate

threatened to quit and the influential military chief publicly declared his support for an election in December.Zia, who has been suffering from ill-health for several years, recently returned to Bangladesh after four months of medical treatment in London, putting further pressure on Bangladesh’s interim government to call an election.

“We have come here to respond to the call for the unity of the young people. We want democracy, we want election. Next election should be held soon, not later than December,” Jahangir Hossain, a student activist, told The Associated Press. “We are united for democracy.”

, Zia’s archrival, has been in exile in India since she was toppled last year by a mass uprising. Her party, the Awami League, was also“It used to be far less,” said Emmanuel Ali, one of the remaining doctors.

The effects of the funding cuts extend far beyond nutrition. At the International Organization for Migration’s reception center in Dikwa, thousands of displaced families and those escaping Boko Haram captivity are stranded. There are no new shelters being built and no support for relocation.“Before, organizations like Mercy Corps built mud-brick homes and rehabilitated damaged shelters to absorb people from the IOM reception center,” said one official at the center, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the situation. “Now, that has stopped.”

Jensen, the U.N. humanitarian head in Maiduguri, said, “sadly, we are not seeing additional funding to make up for the U.S. cuts.” He warned that vulnerable people could turn to risky ways of coping, including joining violent groups.The crisis in Nigeria is part of a larger reckoning. According to Kate Phillips-Barrasso, Mercy Corps’ vice president for policy and advocacy, 40 of its 62 U.S.-funded programs with the potential to reach 3.5 million people in Nigeria, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, Kenya, Lebanon and Gaza have been terminated.