{"id":7139,"date":"2024-08-24T15:03:37","date_gmt":"2024-08-24T15:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/24\/are-we-not-eating-tonight-myanmars-military-junta-accused-of-using-hunger-as-a-weapon-by-blocking-vital-food-aid\/"},"modified":"2024-08-24T15:03:37","modified_gmt":"2024-08-24T15:03:37","slug":"are-we-not-eating-tonight-myanmars-military-junta-accused-of-using-hunger-as-a-weapon-by-blocking-vital-food-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/24\/are-we-not-eating-tonight-myanmars-military-junta-accused-of-using-hunger-as-a-weapon-by-blocking-vital-food-aid\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Are we not eating tonight?\u2019 Myanmar\u2019s military junta accused of using hunger as a \u2018weapon\u2019 by blocking vital food aid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Khin Mar Cho worries for her 4-year-old son as she struggles to scrape together enough food to feed him in a makeshift displacement camp at a crowded monastery in western Myanmar. <\/p>\n

Soldiers had stormed their village of Byine Phyu, Rakhine state, and forced her and other family members out of their homes. They detained all the men and shot her brother and other neighbors, she said. <\/p>\n

Survivors like Khin Mar Cho fled to the monastery just outside the regional capital Sittwe. There, a lone monk is struggling to feed about 300 people who have sought refuge inside the camp as a three-year civil war intensifies around them, waged by Myanmar\u2019s military junta against an armed resistance. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are days that we have no food, even though we are hungry,\u201d Khin Mar Cho said. \u201cI cannot feed my kid anything more than meals donated by people because I don\u2019t have a job or income, and all the male family members have been taken away.\u201d <\/p>\n

Disturbing accounts from multiple aid workers suggest hunger is being used as a weapon of war in Rakhine state. <\/p>\n

Rakhine has become a focal point of the conflict, where a powerful ethnic minority armed rebel group, the Arakan Army (AA) \u2014 which is accused of human rights abuses \u2014 has seized control of at least 10 of the state\u2019s townships since a year-long ceasefire with the military collapsed in November. <\/p>\n

The aid officials said the junta is trying to \u201cstarve\u201d civilians in AA-held territory, using tactics that have repeatedly been described as war crimes and crimes against humanity by UN officials and rights groups. <\/p>\n

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Related<\/span> Hundreds of fleeing Rohingya reportedly killed in Rakhine as fears mount of ethnic cleansing mount<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe Myanmar government is committed to the equality of all citizens,\u201d the statement said. \u201cEvery citizen has the right to travel freely without any restrictions.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Risk of starvation<\/h2>\n

Aid workers say they don\u2019t know the full extent of the suffering due to telecoms and internet blocks coupled with restrictions on access to affected areas. <\/p>\n

But they say the crisis is acute. <\/p>\n

The situation unfolding across the country is desperate, but in Rakhine \u2014 which is almost entirely dependent on food aid \u2014 the UN says that fewer than a quarter of the 873,000 people who need food assistance have received it. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a very real possibility that the most vulnerable\u2026 may die if they do not receive support,\u201d a UN report warned in June. It is now August, and the situation has deteriorated. <\/p>\n

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Myanmar’s military commander-in-chief Sen. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing at an army parade in 2021<\/span> <\/div>
AP<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Dozens of displaced families lie on mats as they shelter at a Rakhine State monastery in November.<\/span> <\/div>
AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Prices for basic staples, like rice, fuel and cooking oil, have skyrocketed partly due to shortages created by the junta\u2019s control of supply routes north from Myanmar\u2019s largest city, Yangon, aid officials said. Requests to transport goods, including food, into the region are being refused, they added. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, food production in the state has plummeted, with farmers predicting a 50% drop in this year\u2019s rice harvest, independent Myanmar news outlet The Irrawaddy reported. <\/p>\n

Mohammed, a 43-year-old father of three, has lived in a displacement camp with his family in Sittwe since 2012, when anti-Muslim violence forced tens of thousands of people from their homes. <\/p>\n

The latest fighting has not yet reached Sittwe, which the junta still controls. But since the collapse of the ceasefire deal between the AA and the military in November opened a major new front in Myanmar\u2019s civil war, the camp has been all but cut off and conditions have drastically deteriorated, he said. <\/p>\n

Mohammed\u2019s children attend a small, makeshift school within the camp, but he says it\u2019s difficult to nurture their dreams when he can only feed them half a bowl of rice. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy children would cry and ask, \u2018Are we not eating tonight?\u2019 In those moments, feeling desperate, I would go to a neighbor and ask for some food to feed our children,\u201d Mohammed told Partners Relief and Development, an aid NGO. <\/p>\n

Yet his neighbors are hungry too, and they have little to spare. <\/p>\n

Access denied<\/h2>\n

\u201cAs the conflict has spread around Rakhine, we\u2019ve also seen the destruction of roadways and bridges,\u201d she said. \u201cThe result is, basically, no one has access to these places.\u201d <\/p>\n

Aid groups, including UN agencies, must get \u201ctravel authorizations\u201d from the state government, which reports to the ruling military council, before they can access territory that the junta considers \u201ctravel-restricted areas,\u201d according to aid officials. <\/p>\n

In February, the junta stopped issuing nearly all travel authorizations to contested or rebel-controlled territory in the state, most of which are in northern Rakhine, according to seven aid officials with direct knowledge of the matter, all of whom requested anonymity. <\/p>\n

Without the travel authorizations, it\u2019s impossible to pass through the junta\u2019s road and waterway blockades, they said. <\/p>\n