PHNOM PENH: Half of the population of Rakhine State in Myanmar is facing severe food shortages due to an ongoing civil conflict.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has made an urgent call to the global community for increased humanitarian assistance.
WFP said a combination of conflict, blockades, and funding cuts is driving a dramatic rise in hunger and malnutrition.
"People are trapped in a vicious cycle, cut off by conflict, stripped of livelihoods, and left with no humanitarian safety net.
"We are hearing heartbreaking stories of children crying from hunger and mothers skipping meals.
"Families are doing everything they can, but they cannot survive this alone,” WFP Representative and Country Director in Myanmar Michael Dunford said in a press statement.
The western state with a population of about three million has been mired in the bloody conflict for years. A military coup in February 2021 only exacerbated the situation.
Rakhine, bordering Bangladesh, has also been caught in sectarian violence which has caused the displacemtn of its Rohingya minority.
According to WFP, the number of families unable to afford basic needs such as food has reached 57 per cent in Rakhine, up from 33 per cent last December.
Families have resorted to desperate measures to survive, such as taking on mounting debts and begging. The conflict has also given rise to domestic violence, school dropouts, social tensions, and human trafficking.
The hunger crisis is caused by the prolonged conflict, severe movement restrictions, soaring food prices, and the reduction of support following a slash in humanitarian funding, said WFP.
"Without urgent action, this crisis will spiral into a full-blown disaster. The world must not look away,” said Dunford.
The global agency requires RM126 million (US$30 million) to assist 270,000 people in Rakhine over the next six months.
The ongoing civil war between the military and various ethnic groups continues to destabilise the Southeast Asian nation of nearly 50 million people. - Bernama
