UN: Displaced Rohingya refugees face aid crisis after violence in Myanmar

Arakan News Agency
The United Nations said some 120,000 displaced people, mostly Rohingya Muslims, in camps in Myanmar’s Arakan province have no access to food or medical care after the United Nations and relief groups suspended their operations following accusations from the government of supporting rebels.
Nearly 400 people were killed in battles in the far north that erupted after Rohingya gunmen launched attacks on police positions and an army base and the army responded with a counter-attack.
The impact of the conflict so far has spread to the city of Akyab, the state capital to the south, where some 90,000 Rohingyas live in camps since violence broke out in the city in 2012 that killed nearly 200 people.
Other regions of the state include 30,000 more Rohingyas in camps for displaced people, while small numbers of Buddhists are displaced by violence in 2012 in separate camps.
“As a result of the suspension of activities in central Arakan, many people are currently not receiving the food assistance they normally receive and the basic health care services have been severely disrupted,” said Pierre Peron, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The United Nations and international relief organizations have already postponed all non-essential staff from the north of the state amid mounting fighting and after the office of Aung San Suu Kyi repeatedly published pictures of WFP-branded foods allegedly found at a rebel camp.
Suu Kyi’s office also said it was investigating aid to rebel relief organizations in one of the incidents.
Currently, contractors working for the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) refuse to carry food to the camps in Akyab and other areas.
UN staff and aid workers told Reuters that staff working with international relief organizations running clinics in large camps crammed with displaced people were afraid to come to work, shutting down some clinics.
Local officials fear they have been harassed by Buddhist militants in Arakan province and some fear attacks from Muslims, the sources said.
Sources with an aid organization told Reuters talks were scheduled between the government and aid agencies next week. One solution could be to provide the government with security escorts for food convoys, they said.