Junta Restrictions Cause Food Shortages Among Rohingyas

Claims by an ethnic Rohingya organization that restrictions from the Rangoon government are causing food shortages in Arakan State were confirmed by the head of the World Food Programme in Burma today.

Bhim Udas, the head of WFP’s operations in Burma, said his organization had had to wait more than three months for a permit to transport food aid to Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung, three predominantly Rohingya townships in Arakan State.

WFP has been operating in Arakan State for the past 11 years, providing food for an estimated 300,000 people. Despite this, the Burmese authorities have given no explanation for the recent delay in granting access, Udas said. Rangoon’s Department of Relief and Social Welfare was unavailable for comment.

The Arakan Rohingya National Organization said today the situation in these three townships is grave, claiming a 5-year-old girl died this month from starvation and that others are on the brink. “The Rohingya villagers are in [a] famine-like situation,” a statement said.

A late monsoon this year has delayed the rice harvest, Udas said, while food aid has been disappearing across the border into Bangladesh recently, exacerbating food shortages.

Udas explained the junta is practicing what it calls a “limited supply” of food aid to the Rohingya population as it is fearful supplies will continue to move across Arakan’s border with Bangladesh in the future.

However, Udas told The Irrawaddy that WFP had not witnessed any signs of starvation in northern Arakan State during the latest food shortages.

Having this month finally received the necessary permit to transport rice and food aid from Rangoon to Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, the WFP says that two weeks ago it was able to offer some supplies to vulnerable groups including young children.

“There is progress,” Udas said.