The United Nations World Food Programme WFP has issued an urgent appeal for donations to avert what it calls a full-blown disaster in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, where food shortages are worsening amid conflict and military blockades.
Rakhine, already home to about 140,000 Rohingya Muslims displaced by 2012 communal violence, has seen humanitarian conditions collapse since the 2021 military coup. The region has been cut off from the rest of the country since 2023, when the military blocked trade and transport routes in a bid to starve the insurgent Arakan Army of supplies. Farmers have abandoned rice harvests, fishing is banned for Rohingyas, and prices have surged fivefold.
The agency warns that families in Rakhine are resorting to extreme measures such as debt, begging, child labour, and even human trafficking as many cannot repay debts or support themselves, while conscription demands add extra pressure on households.
