By Simon Lewis REUTERS
Burma’s security
forces launched a counter-offensive in the northern part of Arakan State after
attacks by Rohingya insurgents that killed nine border police in October.
About 75,000 people
fled across the nearby border with Bangladesh in a crisis that marred Nobel
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s first year in power. The United Nations has said
the military committed rapes, killings and burned down homes in what amounted
to crimes against humanity.
In the first
detailed on-the-ground assessment of the community affected by the violence
since October, the WFP interviewed 450 families in 45 villages in Maungdaw
district in March and April.
“The survey
confirmed a worsening of the food security situation in already highly
vulnerable areas [since October],” the UN agency said. About one-third of those
surveyed reported “extreme … food insecurity,” such as going a day and night
without eating.
Not one of the
children covered in the survey was getting a “minimum adequate diet,” the
report said, adding that an estimated 80,500 children under the age of five
would need treatment for acute malnutrition in the next year.
Suu Kyi’s
administration is refusing to grant access to a United Nations-mandated mission
tasked with investigating allegations of abuses by security forces in Arakan
and elsewhere.
The WFP does not
distinguish between different communities, but more than 90 percent of
residents in Maungdaw are Rohingya. Many in Burma see the group as illegal
immigrants from Bangladesh.
Following the
attacks, the military declared an operation zone in Maungdaw, restricting aid
access and preventing locals from fishing and farming.
A WFP map shows that
villages where the military was most active were highly vulnerable to hunger.
The report also
notes that households where the men left due to security operations were more
likely to go hungry. Many Rohingya men fled their homes because they believed
the military would target them as suspected militants.
Suu Kyi’s spokesman,
Zaw Htay, said he was not familiar with the specific WFP findings, but that
after initial security restrictions the government had been allowing aid
agencies to operate in northern Arakan.
“The WFP is
conducting many, many projects for the people in that region. The Myanmar
government is allowing them to deliver food and other assistance,” he said.
The government
continued to restrict some access for foreign aid workers in northern Arakan,
but national staff could move freely, he said, adding that the government has
delivered aid to people in the area.