Sittwe IDP camps face food shortages

By DMG 18 Aug 2021

DMG Newsroom
18 August 2021, Sittwe

Camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in the Arakan State capital Sittwe are in need of basic foodstuffs, according to managers of the camps.

The IDP camp at Wibitza Wardi Monastery in Sittwe’s Mingan ward is provided with rice from the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, but they need other basic food items, said U Maung Tin Oo, manager of the camp.

IDPs are facing livelihood difficulties because they cannot work outside the camp during the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak, he said.

“Being provided rice is not sufficient for them. And the WFP [World Food Programme] has not provided the IDPs for nearly three months. So, the IDPs are almost starving,” U Maung Tin Oo explained.

More than 400 IDPs from 110 households in Rathedaung, Kyauktaw, Paletwa and Minbya townships are taking shelter at Wibitza Wardi Monastery due to fighting between the Tatmadaw and Arakan Army in 2019.

The IDP camp at Oat Tha Lin Monastery in Mingan ward similarly has only rice for food at the moment, the camp manager said.

“Our camp does not need to worry about rice at the moment. However, we do not have basic food such as edible oil, salt, fish paste and MSG,” Ko Pyi Kyaw Win, a displaced person from Sein Nyin Wa village in Chin State’s Paletwa Township, told DMG.

There are more than 200 people from 51 households at the Oat Tha Lin Monastery IDP camp, a majority of whom are from Paletwa Township.

At Shwe Pyi Thar Monastery in the Arakan State capital, nearly 100 people taking shelter are also facing livelihood difficulties amid widespread joblessness brought on by the pandemic, IDPs said.

More than 100,000 of those displaced by fighting between the Tatmadaw and Arakan Army in Arakan State from 2018-20 have yet to return to their homes and are currently living in IDP camps.