Japan’s Nippon Foundation suspends rice supply to Buthidaung Twsp IDP camps

By DMG 07 Dec 2022

DMG Newsroom
7 December 2022, Buthidaung

Japan’s Nippon Foundation has suspended supplying rice to internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State’s Buthidaung Township after it was found that IDP figures reported by the township General Administration Department did not match the numbers on the ground.

The foundation will verify the figures before resuming the supply, said humanitarian coordinator Ko Win Aung of the Nippon Foundation in Arakan State.

“We have temporarily suspended because the figures do not match. Some of the camps included in the township administration department’s list have no IDPs living there,” he said.

Tens of thousands of civilians in Arakan State remain displaced by past fighting between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army (AA).

The Nippon Foundation was planning to supply 1,115 sacks of rice to seven displacement camps in Buthidaung, but the township general administration department then requested that 570 rice sacks be spared for three other camps.

“When we checked, there were no people taking shelter at those camps,” said Ko Win Aung. “They said they would distribute rice sacks to those camps by themselves. We have already transported rice sacks to Buthidaung and are distributing rice by ourselves. And they told us to give them 570 sacks for three camps. We won’t give them unless there are IDPs in those camps.”

DMG was unable to obtain comment from the Buthidaung Township administrator.

A camp manager of one IDP camp in Buthidaung Township said: “There are currently only five IDP camps in Buthidaung. Locals took temporary shelter in Say Oh Kya, U Hla Pe and Sin Nyin Pyar villages in the previous fighting in 2019. They have long returned to their own villages.”

A total of 545 sacks of rice were reportedly distributed to IDP camps in Buthidaung town on Tuesday.

The Nippon Foundation said it donated 55,094 sacks of rice to IDPs in Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw, Buthidaung, Ann, Minbya, Myebon, Ponnagyun, Rathedaung and Pauktaw townships in April.

Yohei Sasakawa, the chairman of the Nippon Foundation, visited Arakan State on November 28 of last year, at the time pledging to provide US$2 million for displaced people in Arakan State. Sasakawa is also Japan’s special convoy on national reconciliation in Myanmar.

The number of IDPs at displacement camps stood at more than 90,000, according to an October report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

They included more than 16,000 people newly displaced in Arakan State and neighbouring Chin State’s Paletwa Township since fighting between the military and Arakan Army flared anew in August, and those who were displaced by the previous fighting between late 2018 and 2020 and are still unable to return to their homes.