Hundreds of relocated Mro people in Maungdaw Twsp face food shortages

By Admin 19 Jul 2023

DMG Newsroom
19 July 2023, Maungdaw

More than 600 ethnic Mro people from Mroyu Village, part of Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township, who were relocated by the junta earlier this year are reportedly facing food shortages.

The World Food Programme (WFP) provided the Mro people with food supplies such as rice, cooking oil, iodised salt and legumes for one month following Cyclone Mocha, which made landfall over Arakan State on May 14.

“We don’t have enough food. We have received food supplies from the WFP and the junta did not provide us with food items,” said a village official.

Mroyu Village was decimated by Cyclone Mocha, and residents are struggling to make ends meet due to a lack of job opportunities and arable land in the area.

Among the affected population, there are about 150 students from kindergarten to Grade 5, and the village school that was damaged by the storm has been repaired on a self-reliant basis. The parents of some students say the school is not structurally sound, however.

“Students have not been able to go to school due to incessant rains for one week. I am worried that it will affect my children’s education,” said Daw Ma Shwe Thaik, the mother of a student.

Ethnic Mro people were among tens of thousands of Arakan State residents displaced by fighting in northern Arakan State in 2018 and the following year, ultimately ending up at IDP camps. In February 2022, the junta relocated hundreds Mro IDPs to a new village named “Mroyu” near Kyaukpandu Village in Maungdaw Township.

“We feel like our lives are no longer guaranteed,” said an ethnic Mro man, referring to post-cyclone challenges faced by the residents of Mroyu Village.

Mro people live primarily in Arakan State’s Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Ponnagyun, Mrauk-U and Kyauktaw townships. The ethnic group’s total population is estimated at around 40,000.