Arakan News Agency
Violence in a Muslim-majority region of Myanmar is stopping aid agencies from delivering food and medicines, a United Nations official said on Tuesday, as security forces respond to deadly raids that the government says were inspired by Islamists.
Troops have been sweeping northern Rakhine state for more than a week, hunting an estimated 400 fighters who officials believe are members of the mostly stateless Rohingya Muslim community acting with the support of Islamists abroad.
The Myanmar military has declared the area an “operation zone” and has tightly controlled the flow of information since insurgents seized dozens of weapons in raids on border posts on Oct. 9 in which nine police officers were killed.
U.N. agencies “don’t have access to the affected areas to assess humanitarian needs”, Pierre Peron, spokesman for the U.N’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said by email.
Health clinics and nutrition programmes in northern Rakhine have been hampered by movement restrictions imposed after the attacks, he said.
“We hope that the situation will improve as soon as possible so that humanitarian organisations can restart vital programmes to assist all communities in Rakhine state,” Peron said.
The spike in violence in ethnically divided Rakhine state poses a serious challenge to the six-month-old government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who was swept to power in an election last year but has faced criticism abroad for failing to tackle rights abuses against the Rohingya and other Muslims.
