Healthcare aid organisation MSF suspends activities in northern Arakan

By Admin 28 Jun 2024

DMG Newsroom
28 June 2024, Maungdaw

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has suspended its humanitarian operations in the Arakan State townships of Rathedaung, Buthidaung and Maungdaw, the organisation said in a statement on June 27.

"The extreme escalation of conflict, indiscriminate violence, and severe restrictions on humanitarian access in northern Rakhine [Arakan] State, Myanmar, have forced MSF to suspend medical humanitarian activities," the statement said.

"We are very concerned for the people who have been severely impacted by the conflict," the statement added.

"They continue to endure and remain exposed to the deliberate destruction of lives and property, forced recruitment, displacements, and restricted humanitarian access with no options to seek safety due to the ongoing clashes and hostilities. This indefinite suspension of our activities will leave them with zero access to healthcare in the face of huge needs."

A healthcare worker in Arakan State said: "Among the many needs of Arakan State, the health sector is the main one. In addition to the shortages of medicine, at this time of various difficulties, it is unfortunate that MSF has stopped working in some areas and it is very painful for the people."

"MSF ran 14 mobile clinics in northern Rakhine providing essential medical services to all communities, including Rakhine, Rohingya and other minority groups who often had no other access to healthcare," the organisation said.

"On 15 April, the MSF office and pharmacy in Buthidaung were burned down, in this area where both private and public health facilities were already non- functional," it noted.

"We have faced severe restrictions on humanitarian access such as difficulties in delivering care to our patients and facilitating referrals to the Township hospitals, inability to move medical and basic supplies, and bear witness to the total decimation of the healthcare system," the statement lamented.

MSF said it had recorded nine maternal deaths or stillbirths between November 2023 and March of this year.

Locals are suffering from shortages of medicines and high prices amid intensification of the conflict between Myanmar's military regime and the Arakkha Army (AA) in Arakan State, which has been accompanied by junta blockades of critical supply routes.

"It's hard to find medicine related to health, and it's difficult even if you are just a little sick because of the high prices," said a Muslim man from Kyauk Phyu Taung Village in Buthidaung Township. "So I would like to ask the responsible officials to arrange something for us."

There are more than 500,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State, with accommodation and shelter shortfalls adding to concerns about what MSF described as "the total decimation of the healthcare system" in the state.