Myanmar’s conflict-torn Rakhine state could face an imminent acute famine, UN report warns

Last Updated on November 10, 2024 6:18 am

Myanmar’s Rakhine state, home to the Rohingya minority and engulfed in conflict between government forces and a powerful ethnic group, could face an imminent acute famine, the United Nations development agency warned in a new report.

The U.N. Development Program said in the report issued Thursday that “a perfect storm is brewing” which has put western Rakhine “on the precipice of an unprecedented disaster.”

It pointed to a chain of interlinked developments including restrictions on goods from elsewhere in Myanmar and neighboring Bangladesh, the absence of income for residents, hyperinflation, significantly reduced food production, and a lack of essential services and social safety net.

As a result, UNDP said, “an already highly vulnerable population may be on the brink of collapse in the coming months.”

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long considered the Rohingya Muslim minority to be “Bengalis” from Bangladesh even though their families have lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982.

In August 2017, attacks by a Rohingya insurgent group on Myanmar security personnel triggered a brutal campaign by the military which drove at least 740,000 Rohingya to Bangladesh. The military is accused of mass rape, killings and burning thousands of homes.