Myanmar's military is trying to cover up a food crisis affecting some 14 million people across the country, with the situation particularly severe in western Rakhine state.
A Reuters investigation has found that the ruling junta suppresses information about the crisis by pressuring researchers not to collect data on hunger and ordering aid workers not to release it.
In conversations over the past two years, junta representatives have warned senior aid workers against releasing data and analysis suggesting more than a quarter of Myanmar's people are experiencing severe hunger, according to people familiar with the matter.
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The sensitivity of this data shows that the world’s leading hunger watchdog – Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) – In recent weeks, it removed a color-coded assessment of Myanmar from its website’s global map, which showed hunger levels in dozens of countries.
The reason: concerns about the safety of researchers providing data.
To protect data collectors and analysts from the military junta, the IPC has never made public three detailed analyzes that show the war-torn Southeast Asian country, once known as Asia's rice bowl, is facing the world's worst crisis. One of the serious food crises.
Reuters interviewed more than 30 aid workers, researchers, diplomatic sources and United Nations officials about hunger in Myanmar. Most declined to speak publicly, saying they feared retaliation from the military.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military overthrew its democratically elected government in 2021, triggering massive protests that in many cases escalated into an armed insurgency.
An official from Myanmar's Information Ministry did not respond to questions for this article.
70,000 people flee crisis in Rakhine state
Reuters also uncovered at least four examples of how the junta has blocked the distribution of aid or confiscated food supplies for the hungry. One such location is in the western state of Rakhine, where violence has surged over the past year after a ceasefire between the powerful rebel group Arakan Army and the military collapsed.
In Rakhine state, home to the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority, the military has in recent months blocked deliveries of food and medicine to severely malnourished children in a cholera-ravaged region, aid workers said.
Hunger is so severe in Rakhine State that 70,000 refugees have fled to Bangladesh this year, nearly 50% more than previously reported. In November, the United Nations Development Program warned that Rakhine State was on the brink of “severe famine” and that more than 2 million people were at risk of starvation.
Tom Andrews, the U.N. special envoy for human rights in Myanmar, said the junta was “systematically restricting” access to humanitarian aid, leading to the spread of cholera and other infectious diseases. He said he had received reports that many of the hundreds of thousands of poor people who had been cut off from international aid were “on the verge of starvation.”
A spokesman for the British Embassy in Yangon said the military junta's rule had “had a catastrophic impact on agriculture and food supplies”. “People go hungry every day, children are malnourished and millions are pushed into poverty.”
Hidden food crisis in three other states
The situation in Myanmar highlights the intense pressure on the global system of UN agencies, non-governmental humanitarian groups and donor countries to address hunger and prevent famine. Last year, nearly 282 million people in 59 countries and territories faced severe acute food insecurity.
Reuters is recording global hunger relief crisis A series of reports, including from Sudan and Afghanistan.
One of the major obstacles to alleviating hunger is that governments hinder aid efforts, including the collection of nutrition data, whether to avoid the embarrassment of needing outside help or to prevent food from reaching enemy-controlled territory.
Except Myanmar, Discovery overview In three other countries suffering food crises—Ethiopia, Yemen, and Sudan—governments or rebels have blocked or falsified the flow of IPC information, or attempted to suppress IPC findings.
In private discussions with U.N. officials, junta representatives criticized data on Myanmar's hunger crisis and said they did not want the country to be seen as a failed state or to compete with other conflict-torn countries such as Ukraine and Gaza. Compared to ravaged places.
Myanmar's foreign minister enjoyed snacks with U.N. officials at a meeting in the capital to discuss food security. The minister said there was no food security crisis, according to people familiar with the matter.
The junta's foreign and information ministries did not respond to emailed requests for comment. The military government said it would not prevent international organizations from providing humanitarian aid and ensure that those in need receive available aid.
My mother told me that hunger forced me to flee
It was hunger, not just fighting, that prompted pregnant Juhara Begum to risk her life and leave Myanmar's Rakhine state. The 25-year-old said her family had to rely on leaves and other plants to survive. There was nothing to eat, so when her oldest son, a toddler, cried, they gave him a banana stem to suck on to satisfy his hunger.
“It feels like hell,” she said in a refugee camp near the coastal town of Cox's Bazar in southern Bangladesh. She arrived there last month after several days of walking.
Other recent arrivals include 23-year-old Kasmida Begum, her husband Sulaiman and their two young children. There was so little to eat, she said, that she could not breastfeed their baby. “If I'm always hungry, where does the milk come from?” she asked.
In private discussions with U.N. officials, junta representatives criticized data on Myanmar's hunger crisis and said they did not want the country to be seen as a failed state or to compete with other conflict-torn countries such as Ukraine and Gaza. Compared to ravaged places.
Despite the intimidation, some headlines about Myanmar's food crisis have been released. In recent days, reports from the World Bank and the United Nations have shown that hunger has worsened significantly for millions of people.
Like other aid organizations, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) provides reports to local authorities, donors and partner organizations on its operations in the countries where it works.
To protect its staff and local partners, WFP, the United Nations' main food aid distribution agency, has not issued a report on the situation in Myanmar since June 2023. WFP has not released an annual country report for Myanmar since 2022.
- Reuters Additional editing by Jim Pollard
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Report says Southeast Asian fraud syndicates stole US$64 billion in 2023
US, UK and Canada step up action against Myanmar's military junta
Central Bank of Myanmar cancels 120 foreign exchange licenses – RFA
Bangladesh's main bank freezes Myanmar regime's accounts
UOB to cut ties with Myanmar banks on September 1 – Nikkei
EU and US sanctions aimed at curbing Myanmar's war funding
Criminal groups control parts of Myanmar, Laos economic zones: United Nations
ICG warns Myanmar heading towards state collapse
