Yangon: A military crackdown has left more than 220,000 Rohingya Muslims on the brink of starvation in Myanmar’s conflict-torn Rakhine state, according to an assessment by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), Anadolu Agency reported.
Food insecurity has been worsening in already highly vulnerable areas in the northern part of Rakhine state since the military crackdown, which began last October, WFP said on Monday.
The UN food agency’s assessment said nearly one-third of the population in the area, where Rohingya Muslims are the majority, were identified as severely food-insecure and in need of humanitarian assistance, with an estimated 225,800 people suffering from hunger.
“None of the children covered in the survey met the minimum adequate diet,” said the assessment, based on interviews with 450 families in 45 villages in the area.
It added that an estimated 80,500 children under the age of 5 will be in need of treatment for acute malnutrition within the next 12 months.
The release of the WFP assessment came one day after a top UN human rights investigators began a 12-day visit to Myanmar to assess the human rights situation in the country.
Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, arrived in the country’s capital Naypyidaw on Sunday, and is scheduled to visit the conflict-prone areas, including Rakhine state.
Last October Myanmar’s military launched a crackdown following the killing of nine police officers in the Maungdaw district near the country’s western border with Bangladesh.
During the crackdown, the UN and rights groups have documented widespread abuses by security forces such as killings – including the deaths of children and babies – gang rapes, brutal beatings, the burning of villages, and forced disappearances.
AB/IINA
