{"id":85219,"date":"2025-10-09T13:37:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T07:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.frontiermyanmar.net\/?p=85219"},"modified":"2026-02-24T17:43:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:13:55","slug":"nothing-you-can-do-spectre-of-starvation-haunts-rakhine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.frontiermyanmar.net\/en\/nothing-you-can-do-spectre-of-starvation-haunts-rakhine\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Nothing you can do\u2019: Spectre of starvation haunts Rakhine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Conflict and a transportation blockade by the junta have led to widespread hunger in Rakhine State, leading residents to take desperate measures, from selling their own blood to killing themselves. <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By FRONTIER<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A husband and his wife poisoned their three children and then hanged themselves in the Rakhine State capital of Sittwe in late June. They left no explanation, but their neighbours have little doubt it was due to desperate poverty and hunger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the Rakhine people in Mingan ward, on the westernmost outskirts of Sittwe, are labourers, fisherfolk and trishaw taxi drivers. The husband who hanged himself, Ko Maung Oo, was one of those drivers. He had been struggling for months with little if any work and no money for food for his family, neighbours said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They hadn’t eaten a proper meal in a long time. On some days, they had to get by just drinking water from making rice,” Mingan resident Ko Win Maung said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Win Maung, who used a pseudonym to protect his identity, also told of a Mingan woman who died by suicide in May, the month before the deaths of Maung Oo and his family, also because she was destitute and starving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another neighbour, Ko Lin Lin, said Maung Oo and his family just \u201ccouldn\u2019t bear it any more\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There\u2019s just nothing you can do,\u201d he told Frontier<\/em>, referring to the sense of desperation in the community and also using a pseudonym. \u201cPeople around you are in distress, they\u2019re in trouble, and you can’t do anything about it. You can’t help them, you can’t even help yourself.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rakhine-based outlet Development Media Group reported<\/mark><\/a> in July that the junta, which controls Sittwe town, tried to suppress the news of the family\u2019s deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[Junta soldiers] immediately took their bodies and cremated them,\u201d a resident told DMG. \u201cThe military regime then promptly covered up the news to prevent it from spreading.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frontier <\/em>was unable to contact any regime authorities in Sittwe to ask about the reported suicides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
People carry containers of drinking water at a distribution point in Sittwe on May 17, 2023. (AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Struggling to survive\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Rakhine is facing a food crisis after years of warfare between the Arakan Army and the military, and a regime blockade of transportation in and out of the state \u2013 aimed at undermining the AA \u2013 is slowly starving the people, residents say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myanmar has been in crisis since the military overthrew the elected National League for Democracy government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, sparking a groundswell of protest across the country, which the military crushed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crackdown triggered armed opposition by a myriad of new groups, many of which linked up with ethnic armed groups that have been battling the central authorities for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The economy has been in freefall since then, while natural disasters, including floods and a 7.7-magnitude earthquake in central Myanmar on March 28, have compounded the crisis. President Donald Trump\u2019s decision<\/mark><\/a> in January to cut United States aid has only made the situation worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFour years on from the military takeover, civilians in Myanmar are struggling to survive an unprecedented humanitarian crisis that has upended the lives of millions,\u201d the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said<\/mark><\/a>, adding that nearly 20 million people, more than a third of Myanmar’s population, are in need of assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The situation in Rakhine is particularly grim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In November 2023, fighting between the military and the AA resumed after a fragile ceasefire that had lasted for more than two years. The Rakhine group has since made spectacular gains, driving the military out of all but three of the state\u2019s 17 townships, leaving the regime bottled up in Sittwe, Kyaukphyu town and Munaung Township.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The junta\u2019s control of Sittwe port has allowed it to stop aid deliveries, and its blockade on other trade routes has exacerbated a severe shortage of food and medicine in Rakhine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not surprisingly, prices have surged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, Rakhine residents said that one viss (1.63 kilogrammes) of garlic used to cost K4,000 (about US$0.9 at the market rate) before the coup, but now it costs more than K40,000. Similarly, a viss of chili was about K3,500 before the coup, but the price has soared to K35,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Prices have gone up about tenfold. The local people don’t have jobs, businesses have stopped, so living conditions have become much worse,” U Aye Chan, a trader in Mrauk-U town, told Frontier<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Some goods come in from India and Bangladesh, and others from central Myanmar, but they can only be transported with great difficulty,” he said, using a pseudonym. “As a result, there are commodity shortages and prices are rising, and there\u2019s even a shortage of cash.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
People flee fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army in Rakhine\u2019s Pauktaw Township on November 19, 2023. (AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Vicious cycle\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The World Food Programme said<\/mark><\/a> in August 57 percent of families in Rakhine cannot meet basic food needs and 1.5 million people are going hungry on a daily basis, selling their last assets to feed their children as they struggle to stave off famine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly half a million people are displaced in the state, including more than 157,000 members of the persecuted Rohingya minority, according to UN estimates. The AA’s Humanitarian and Development Coordination Office said<\/mark><\/a> in December last year there were more than 600,000 internally displaced people in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople are trapped in a vicious cycle; cut off by conflict, stripped of livelihoods, and left with no humanitarian safety net,\u201d Mr Michael Dunford, the WFP representative and country director in Myanmar, said in a statement<\/mark><\/a> on August 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are hearing heartbreaking stories of children crying from hunger and mothers skipping meals. Families are doing everything they can, but they cannot survive this alone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ko Min Zaw, a member of a social relief organisation working in northern Rakhine who requested the use of a pseudonym to protect his identity, told Frontier<\/em> that the food crisis is hitting all parts of the state, both the pockets of territory under the regime and the areas controlled by the AA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow that it\u2019s the rainy season, it\u2019s even worse,\u201d he said, referring to the usual decline in economic activity when the rains flood the fields, disrupt fishing and halt construction work. \u201cThere are no jobs, no food is available and everything is difficult. Both the displaced people and people in their villages are facing food shortages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Min Zaw said that while everyone is facing hardship, it\u2019s the displaced people with no hope of earning any money who are suffering the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey can’t buy meat and fish, they can only eat vegetables,\u201d he said. \u201cThe local businesses aren\u2019t operating, so the displaced people just don\u2019t have any opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Min Zaw pointed out that civil society organisations like his are starved of international funding and struggling to provide any relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“No help is coming from anywhere. The military has blocked it, so everyone\u2019s in trouble,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Desperate displaced people have been resorting to whatever means they can to survive, and some people are even selling their own blood. DMG reported<\/mark><\/a> in September last year that people donating blood in Ponnagyun town are being paid between K100,000 and K200,000 for 450 millilitres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rohingya\u2019s suffering<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Rohingya are also suffering under the junta\u2019s blockade \u2013 and they are particularly vulnerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communal riots between the mostly stateless minority and the Rakhine majority erupted in 2012. Scores of people were killed and more than 100,000, most of them Rohingya, were displaced. Thirteen years later they are still confined in camps across the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Myanmar military crackdown in northern Rakhine in 2017 displaced hundreds of thousands more Rohingya, with some 750,000 of them fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Displaced Rohingya gather by their shelters at the Baw Du Pha IDP Camp in Sittwe on July 4, 2021. (AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Those who remain in camps for the internally displaced in the state have little hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re starving,\u201d said Ko Aung Oo, a Rohingya man living in an IDP camp near Sittwe who requested the use of a pseudonym. \u201cWe can\u2019t go out to catch fish. We can\u2019t go anywhere. We only eat plain rice for several days and sometimes we don\u2019t get dinner. No help is coming in from anywhere.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aung Oo told Frontier<\/em> of a Rohingya family that recently died by suicide because they were starving in Sittwe Township\u2019s Thet Kay Pyin village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere were about five people. They did it because they could no longer endure the suffering,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frontier <\/em>was not able to verify his account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the roads aren\u2019t opened and aid doesn\u2019t arrive it\u2019ll be very difficult in the long run. We\u2019re already in a lot of trouble now. If we don\u2019t kill ourselves we\u2019ll die of starvation,\u201d Aung Oo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Worse for women\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The crisis is particularly affecting another vulnerable collective: women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ma Thein Thein, who requested the use of a pseudonym, lives in an IDP camp in Mrauk-U Township. A mother of two young sons, Thein Thein said her husband went to look for work in Thailand in 2021 but she has not heard from him since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years ago, she and her boys had to flee from their home because of the conflict between the AA and the regime, and they ended up in the IDP camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 100 families live in Thein Thein’s camp, and almost everyone is struggling to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost of the men would do whatever work they can find but they can\u2019t find jobs,\u201d she told Frontier<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s worse for women. We can\u2019t find work and we can only feed our children with rice. We can\u2019t afford meat or fish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Desperate women and children venture out of the camp to beg in nearby villages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Of course, we feel ashamed but there’s no other choice for us,\u201d Thein Thein said. \u201cIf I could just get in touch with my husband, I\u2019m sure things would be okay.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in Sittwe, Win Maung is thankful that his daughter and son are working abroad, escaping the misery at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes we only have rice to eat. There are days when we only drink the rice water,\u201d he told Frontier<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLife here is suffocating,\u201d Win Maung said. \u201cThere are no jobs and income is irregular. It\u2019s not easy to survive when prices are this high. We\u2019d never heard of people dying of starvation before, but now we see it with our own eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conflict and a transportation blockade by the junta have led to widespread hunger in Rakhine State, leading residents to take desperate measures, from selling their own blood to killing themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":85222,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[11589,19806,19543,20507,20261,20527,19250,149,20526],"coauthors":[6140],"class_list":["post-85219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-arakan-army","tag-conflict-in-rakhine","tag-economic-crisis","tag-economic-downturn","tag-famine","tag-famine-in-rakhine","tag-internally-displaced-people","tag-rakhine-state","tag-starvation","pmpro-has-access"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Nothing you can do\u2019: Spectre of starvation haunts Rakhine | Frontier 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