Rice prices soar in battle-hit Maungdaw

By Admin 01 Aug 2024

DMG Newsroom
1 August 2024, Maungdaw

The price of rice has reportedly increased to K500,000 per sack in Maungdaw, Arakan State, where the Arakkha Army (AA) continues to conduct an offensive aimed at seizing the border town.

A woman displaced by the fighting said that commodity flows have all but ceased and there is a shortage of food, causing the prices of goods to rise exponentially.

“We will not die in a junta shelling, but we will starve to death,” she said. “We don’t know exactly how long it will take for the AA to capture Maungdaw. People in Maungdaw will go hungry if rice is not exported by Bangladesh. The price of rice has risen to K500,000. Those trapped by fighting in downtown Maungdaw face more hardships.”

The AA released a statement on June 16 asking people to leave Maungdaw as soon as possible as the battle for control of the border town was about to begin. Nearly seven weeks later amid intense fighting around Maungdaw, there are still some civilians trapped in the area, unable to escape.

“We face many difficulties due to skyrocketing rice prices. Some people have to eat rice porridge as they are worried about the rice shortage,” said a Maungdaw resident trapped by the fighting.

The AA is currently attacking the military’s Border Guard Force (BGF) Battalion No. 5 in Maungdaw’s Myothugyi Ward, the only junta BGF battalion still based in Maungdaw Township.

Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes and remain displaced since renewed fighting began on November 13, 2023, in Arakan State, and many internally displaced people (IDPs) are in urgent need of food and medicines.