Desperate Myanmar villagers turn to bamboo shoots for survival as starvation stalks Rakhine<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fleeing renewed clashes between Myanmar\u2019s military and the Arakan Army in Pauktaw Township, western Rakhine State, residents now face worsening hunger as a wartime blockade and US-led aid cuts drive many to survive on bamboo shoots. \u2014 AFP pic<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MRAUK U, Aug 16 \u2014 People in western Myanmar have been driven to scavenging for bamboo shoots, as humanitarian workers warn a wartime blockade and aid cutbacks led by Washington have caused hunger cases to surge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnother day has gone, and I have to struggle again for another day,\u201d fruit vendor Kyaw Win Shein told AFP in the town of Mrauk U in Myanmar\u2019s Rakhine state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is getting worse day by day,\u201d the 60-year-old, whose business is faltering as prices rise and incomes drop \u2014 a grim equation driving others to scour the countryside for sustenance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rakhine state \u2014 a riverine slice of coastal Myanmar bordering Bangladesh \u2014 has witnessed intense suffering in Myanmar\u2019s civil war, triggered by a 2021 coup deposing the democratic government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the military fights an ethnic armed group, it has blockaded the territory \u2014 throttling supplies to its estimated population of 2.5 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The impoverished state has long been a focus of international aid organisations, but worldwide cutbacks spearheaded by US President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cAmerica First\u201d freeze on humanitarian funding have forced them to retreat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The World Food Programme (WFP) \u2014 which received nearly half its 2024 donations from the United States \u2014 warned last week that 57 per cent of families in central Rakhine are now unable to meet basic food needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The figure had risen from just 33 per cent in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA deadly combination of conflict, blockades, and funding cuts is driving a dramatic rise in hunger and malnutrition,\u201d the WFP said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In northern Rakhine areas such as Mrauk U \u2014 where conflict complicates data collection \u2014 WFP warned the situation is \u201cmuch worse\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Residents said fertiliser is scarce, reducing crop yields and making produce unaffordable, driving people to desperate measures in a tightening spiral of misery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am not the only one who has difficulties,\u201d said fruit vendor Kyaw Win Shein. \u201cEveryone is the same.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018People are starving\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The village of Ponnagyun is a short distance from the state capital Sittwe, at the mouth of a delta opening onto the Bay of Bengal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rakhine cuisine is famed for its fresh, simply cooked seafood, and fish is still on sale in markets. But people have no cash to buy it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople are starving in my village,\u201d said one resident who runs a Ponnagyun payphone shop, but asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople find and eat bamboo shoots mostly,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople can eat it, but it\u2019s not nutritious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said only two aid handouts reached their community in the past year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The conflict blockade is so effective that currency notes are not leaving the state to be replaced with new ones for circulation, and instead are left crumbling from wear and tear in the pockets of customers and vendors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe commodity prices are really high,\u201d said 64-year-old Mrauk U resident Hla Paw Tun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany people are selling, but few are buying,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have been struggling to survive day by day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rakhine has long been wracked by civil conflict \u2014 the site of alleged military atrocities against the resident Rohingya minority around 2017, which some countries have deemed a genocide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than one million Rohingya now live in Bangladeshi border camps \u2014 and the UN said last month a massive new influx had seen 150,000 arrivals over the previous 18 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, nearly half a million people remain displaced inside Rakhine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among them is 49-year-old Hla Aye, who fled her village for Mrauk U when two bombs fell near her house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She set up as a shopkeeper, but that business quickly failed in Rakhine\u2019s hostile wartime economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, she believes, her struggles may not be over yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have no idea how the future will be and if it will be more difficult,\u201d she said. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Desperate Myanmar villagers turn to bamboo shoots for survival as starvation stalks Rakhine Fleeing renewed clashes between Myanmar\u2019s military and the Arakan Army in Pauktaw Township, western Rakhine State, residents now face worsening hunger as a wartime blockade and US-led aid cuts drive many to survive on bamboo shoots. \u2014 AFP pic MRAUK U, Aug […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2322,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2321"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2324,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321\/revisions\/2324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}