Arakan State IDP camps face severe food shortages

By DMG 07 Jun 2022

DMG Newsroom
7 June 2022, Sittwe 

Internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State are acutely short of food supplies as the military regime is only providing a small amount and donations from individual and organisational actors have dwindled. 

Wah Taung IDP camp, in Minbya Township’s Phone Thar Chaung village-tract, shelters nearly 200 IDPs who are said to be going hungry. As the area is only accessible by water, the IDP camp barely receives relief supplies from donors. 

IDPs there rely solely on rice supplies provided by the military regime, and have been going hungry as the junta’s Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement only provides two tins of rice per day for a person, camp manager Daw Ma Yin Oo told DMG. 

“A few months ago, we were starving as the social welfare ministry didn’t supply rice,” she said. 

“The ministry resumed rice supplies at the end of May. People here do hard labour, so a tin of rice per head is not enough for them. As the camp is in a remote area, no donor organisation has reached us.” 

The camp only receives rice, and lacks kitchen utensils and other household appliances, said IDPs. 

Pi Pin Yin IDP camp in Mrauk-U Township ran out of rice provided by the regime in May, and has not yet received supplies for June, said camp manager U Maung Sein. More than 2,000 people are taking shelter at the camp. 

“The social welfare ministry does not supply rice regularly. We would have starved if we did not go out and do casual jobs. The supply is not enough,” U Maung Sein said. 

The regime stopped supplying rice for IDP camps in Arakan State in February, citing budget constraints. Supplies resumed in May, but the one-tin ration is inadequate, say IDPs.  

U Than Aye, information officer of Maha Muni IDP camp in Kyauktaw Township, said the camp also receives a monthly allowance of K18,000 per head, provided by the World Food Programme (WFP). The allowance breaks down to about K300 per meal at two meals per day. 

“For the time being, we have to give priority to building houses in our camp before the monsoon season is in full swing,” he said, adding that a tin of rice and K300 did not constitute a decent meal. 

“So, we’d like to urge the WFP to supply foodstuffs instead of K600,” he added. 

The IDP camp had 432 houses until May 9, when 262 houses were damaged or burnt to the ground in a fire. 

IDPs have called on the regime, civil society organisations and international organisations to help, as soon as possible, the displacement camps whose shelters have been damaged or destroyed. 

“Mosquitoes are rampant now as it is the rainy season. However, no health department has provided us with mosquito nets though there are thousands of people living here,” said camp manager Ko Than Aye of Nyaung Chaung IDP camp in Kyauktaw, where more than 3,000 displaced people are sheltering. 

IDPs displaced by fighting between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army, which raged across Arakan State from 2018-2020, have been unwilling or unable to return to their homes.  

A female IDP said: “We have to make do with my husband’s earnings. He collects bamboo shoots and chops firewood. I am concerned for his safety when he goes into the forest due to the risk of landmines. But we don’t want to starve and we have no alternative.” 

Many IDPs who remain at the camps have no plan to return to their homes in the near future because tensions have been growing in Arakan State, with the Arakan Army warning that clashes could break out at any time.