Arakan News Agency
United Nations World Food Program WFP says Myanmar faces a funding shortfall of 19 million USD; in view of the increasing numbers of people displaced by the recent violence in Arakan State, western Myanmar.
According to a report prepared by the local “Irrawaddy” magazine, on Friday, the “increasing numbers of displaced people in Rakhine (Arakan) as a result of acts of violence, leading to a shortfall in funding for the program, despite recent donations, which amounted to $ 7.4 million, from the United States, Australia and Sweden. ”
The magazine quoted an unnamed official saying, “We do not have funding to continue our operations until June (next year), but we have enough until the end of February.”
The official added, ” The budget allocated by the program for Myanmar is affected by the needs of the unexpected and unplanned displacement in Maungdaw and some areas of Arakan state,” according to the magazine.
He continued, “We simply did not expect that things would get worse at this point.”
It should be noted that the government forces, launched a military campaign on October 9th last year in the state, following the implementation of unidentified gunmen attacks on border outposts there.
The government has accused Muslim groups, of involvement in the attacks, before launching its campaign, in which hundreds were killed and 575 injured.
And the government forces, according to the international organization “Human Rights Watch” has burned at least 1,500 houses, owned by members of the Muslim minority Rohingya in Arakan.
Since the start of operations of Myanmar troops, 400 Muslims were killed, according to human rights organizations, while the government announced the deaths of only 86 people, as well as the displacement of large waves.
The Arakan is one of the most impoverished states of Myanmar, it is experiencing violence since 2012 between Buddhists and Muslims; what caused the deaths of hundreds of people and the displacement of more than a hundred thousand people.
