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12-11-2024
UNITED NATIONS/ NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar‘s war-ravaged Rakhine state could face imminent famine according to a new United Nations report, which estimates that more than two million people could be at risk of starvation.
“Rakhine’s economy has stopped functioning,” said a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) report released late on Thursday.
It projected “famine conditions by mid-2025” if current levels of food insecurity are left unaddressed in the western state bordering Bangladesh that is home to the stateless Rohingya community.
Some two million people are at risk of starvation, UNDP added.
Rice production in Rakhine has declined due to shortages of seeds and fertilizers, severe weather and the displacement of people who can no longer farm, the agency said.
“Rakhine stands on the precipice of an unprecedented disaster,” the UNDP said in its report.
“Combined with the near-total halt of trade, over two million people are at risk of starvation,” it added.
“Without urgent action, 95 percent of the population will regress into survival mode.”
Aid agencies including the Red Cross have faced severe difficulties in assessing humanitarian needs and delivering aid due to restrictions from Myanmar’s military government.
Reporting from Bangkok, Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng said that the region is currently only able to produce 20 percent of the food that it needs.
“At the centre of this crisis are the Rohingya … Those who are lucky enough, have been able to escape the borders, into Bangladesh. But millions remain and their situation is going to get even worse,” he said.
The number of internally displaced people in Rakhine has risen by more than 60 percent from October 2023 to August this year, with more than 500,000 now relying entirely on aid, the UNDP said.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military overthrew the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, prompting mass protests that escalated into an armed rebellion on multiple fronts.
Violence has been on the increase since conflict reignited in Rakhine last November following the collapse of a ceasefire between the Arakan Army (AA) and the military. Rebel forces have since made substantial gains.
With more than three million people displaced and much of the country in chaos, humanitarian aid has become critical in Myanmar.
In October, Six people have died as nearly 100 Rohingya landed by boat in Indonesia’s Aceh province in the latest wave of arrivals from Myanmar in recent days.
Miftach Tjut Adek, chief of a local fishing community, told the Reuters news agency on Thursday that 96 people, including seven children, were still at a beach in the eastern part of Aceh on Sumatra Island.
“There is no solution yet. They are still at the beach,” Miftach said.
Two bodies were found on the shore and four floating in the sea, said Saiful Anwar, a village official in East Aceh. “According to information from residents, these people were stranded at around 4am,” Saiful told media.
East Aceh acting district head Amrullah M Ridha told reporters the refugees would be kept in tents on the beach until the authorities found shelter for them.
About 300 Rohingya came ashore last week in the provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra. The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR has called on Indonesia’s government to ensure their safety. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
