Dozens of Muslims’ deaths blamed on diarrhoea in Sittwe Twsp

By Admin 19 Apr 2024

DMG Newsroom
19 April 2024, Sittwe

About 80 Muslims, including children under the age of 10, in some Muslim camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) and villages in Sittwe Township, Arakan State, have reportedly died of diarrhoea due to a lack of medicine.

One IDP said that Muslims from two displacement camps and Darpaing and Basar villages have been suffering from diarrhoea since early April.

“As far as we know, about 80 adults and children died of [the illness]. The death toll could be higher. Now there are people who have diarrhoea,” he added.

A man from Basar village said that there is a shortage of medicine in Muslim IDP camps and village clinics, and about 80 people have lost their lives because of insufficient medicine.

“The village healthcare centre faces shortages of medicine. Six people are being injected with one dose instead of injecting one person [per dose]. Locals can’t afford to buy medicine,” the man explained.

Muslims in Sittwe Township are facing a shortage of medicine in Muslim displacement camps and villages as the regime has banned them from travelling and transporting medicine.

The average summer temperature in Arakan State last year was 34 degrees Celsius, but this year’s April temperature has reached 38 degrees Celsius, and the temperature may continue to rise, according to the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH).

DMH urged the public to be cautious as the temperature rise may lead to additional health problems.

As the hottest part of the year has arrived, IDPs in Arakan State are facing a shortage of drinking water, and are in urgent need of shelter ahead of the storm season, the United Nations has said.