Narinjara News, 21March 2022

More than 20 IDP camps in Sittwe have not received the rice, supplied by the social welfare, relief andresettlement ministry, for nearly twomonths, said an IDP official.

The camps, located in 20 monasteries of the Arakan capital city, have been running without the governmentrice-supplies since February, said SayadawU Sakkainda, the head of Vibhagwadi monastery, which opened a camp to support the refugees.

“We have not received rice and other items from the authority for two months now. I heard that the governmenthas reduced the budget to supportthe refugees. However, I cannot confirm,” he added.

There could be thousands of Rakhine refugees in the camps, who were compelled to escape their villages dueto the ongoing conflict between theArakan Army (AA) and Myanmar Tamadaw in the last two years.

Maung Tin Oo, in-charge of a refugee camp admitted whiletalking to Narinjara News that thescarcity of rice has made the life of refugees difficult in true sense of the term.

“The refugees in camps may go hungry if the scarcity continues. There is no work for them as well. Manyfamilies with a bigger number of membershave made the situation more complicated.As the government rice-suppliesare stopped, the monks have to go searching for food items for the refugees,” he added.

U Hla Thein, a RakhineState council spokesperson, admitted that the authority was planning to close several refugee camps inRakhine.

Hence the gradual decline of rice-supplies from the government to various refugee camps has beenobserved.