Arakan State IDPs still awaiting aid promised by Japanese envoy

By DMG 19 Mar 2022

DMG Newsroom
19 March 2022, Sittwe

Internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State have yet to receive cash assistance pledged last year by the Tokyo-based Nippon Foundation.

Japan’s special envoy for national reconciliation in Myanmar, who is also chairman of the Nippon Foundation, Yohei Sasakawa, visited Sittwe in November. During the trip, he promised to provide US$8.5 million for IDPs in Arakan State, saying that he had witnessed firsthand the malnourishment that afflicts many displacement camps.

But U Hla Thein, spokesman for the Arakan State military council, said the military council has not yet received the cash assistance.

“All I know is they will donate over US$8 million, which will be used to provide relief aid to refugees and build lakes and schools in villages. But we still don’t know details about when and where they will provide the money,” said U Hla Thein.

Officials from the Arakan National Party (ANP) met Sasakawa during his visit to Sittwe in November. ANP General Secretary U Khaing Pyi Soe said the party is also in the dark about the pledged assistance. There may have been delays due to the current political situation, he suggested.

“As far as we know, Arakanese refugees have not yet received anything from them,” said U Khaing Pyi Soe.

Many Arakanese IDPs need new shelters and are facing food shortages, said the secretary of the Rakhine Ethnics Congress (REC), Ko Zaw Zaw Tun. More than 60,000 IDPs remain at displacement camps and are not yet able to return to their homes, according to the REC.

Of the planned $8.5 million earmarked for funding, some would be used to build primary and secondary schools in Arakan State, the Nippon Foundation said in November. The foundation added that it has previously built more than 140 primary schools in Arakan State.