Some 75,000
stateless Muslim Rohingya people who fled a bloody army crackdown live in
western Rakhine state and are reeling from a food crisis
 |
| No children under the age of two met minimum adequate diet requirements,the assessment found, while 225,000 people need humanitarian assistance. Photograph: AP |
More than 80,000
children under the age of five living in majority-Muslim areas of western
Myanmar are “wasting” and will need treatment for acute malnutrition over the
next year, the World Food Programme has warned.
The report from the
United Nations agency was based on an assessment of villages in western Rakhine
state, where some 75,000 stateless Muslim Rohingya people have fled a bloody
army crackdown.
Those who remain are
now reeling from a food crisis, with WFP finding one-third of homes are
experiencing extreme food deprivation in Maungdaw, one district particularly
affected by the violence. This includes episodes of no food in the house or not
eating for 24 hours.
A quarter of all
households composed of only one female adult as the men had left due to the
military campaign. These households had the highest frequency of episodes of
severe hunger, WFP said.
No children under
the age of two met minimum adequate diet requirements, the assessment found,
while 225,000 people need humanitarian assistance.
“It is estimated
that 80,500 children under the age of five are expected to be in need of
treatment for acute malnutrition over the next twelve months,” the WFP report
said. A WFP spokesperson in Myanmar said this “wasting” — condition of rapid
weight lose that can become fatal — impairs the functioning of the immune
system.
“The survey has
confirmed a worsening of the food security situation in already highly
vulnerable areas following the security incidents and ensuing violence in late
2016,” the WFP report said.
In October last
year, Rohingya militant attacks on border police sparked army retaliation in
which government forces have used helicopters to attack villages.
The country’s
de-facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel peace prize in
1991, has been criticised by more than a dozen fellow laureates for the armed
response. They wrote an open letter to the UN Security
Council warning of a tragedy “amounting to ethnic cleansing and crimes against
humanity” in Rakhine state. Open Letter: https://www.facebook.com/Professor.Muhammad.Yunus/posts/996372943802283:0
Regardless, Myanmar
said last month it will refuse entry to members of a United Nations
investigation focusing on allegations of killings, rape
and torture by security forces against Rohingya Muslims. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/09/more-than-1000-rohingya-feared-killed-in-myanmar-crackdown-say-un-officials
The WFP assessment
found that in area affected by the violence, nearly half of the markets were
not or only partially functioning. “Food prices were highly volatile, and
supply of affordable dried fish, a main source of proteins for the population,
was scarce,” the report said.
“Under these
circumstances and with the upcoming rainy season that may aggravate an already
fragile situation, the capacity of the most vulnerable population to access
sufficient food in the long-term is severally undermined and will depend on the
humanitarian assistance in the near future.”
Also read here: Over
80,000 80k Rohingya kids ‘wasting’ from hunger: UN http://presstv.com//Detail/2017/07/17/528754/Myanmar-Rohingya-Rakhine-hunger-malnutrition-UN