The 1,094 displaced people (IDPs) sheltering in Ganantaung camp in Ponnagyun Township, Arakan (Rakhine) State are in urgent need of food and medical supplies according to camp officials and residents.
They only have very limited access to humanitarian aid and have to forage for food which has become harder since the start of the rainy season, at the beginning of June.
Daw Nwe Nwe Mu, an IDP woman living in Ganantaung camp said: “We picked wild vegetables from the forests and cooked them with salt, nothing else. I was sick and craving fish, but I couldn’t afford it.”
Camp residents have also reported that it has become more difficult to earn an income due to a lack of job opportunities and bad weather making it harder to earn money from natural products.
To survive, many IDPs who cannot get other work have to rely on the surrounding forests and mountains to earn a living by doing work such as foraging for wild vegetables and collecting and chopping firewood. Unfortunately, recent heavy rain has made such work very risky as mountain streams, swollen by rainwater, pose a serious danger.
Ma Phyu Phyu Than, another woman at the camp, said that the IDPs are forced to venture into the forests to stave off hunger, despite the danger posed by deadly mountain torrents.
Explaining how they can earn a meagre income from the forest she said to DMG: “We left at 7:00 am to collect firewood and didn’t return until 2:00 pm. We earned only 7,500 MMK from selling 50 sticks of firewood, but our daily expenses are around 20,000 MMK, so that’s not enough. The whole camp is struggling.”
As a result of such problems, many IDPs have insufficient food. “IDPs are going hungry. A household that used to cook five tins of rice a day now manages only three,” said U Maung Ni Jar, the Ganantaung camp manager.
“Some children are sick and need medicine, but their families can’t afford it. Malnutrition among children is also a growing concern. IDPs haven’t received any aid in the past 11 months, and the situation is dire,” he added.
To make matters worse for the IDPs the rainy season has also brought a rise in mosquito-borne illnesses such as malaria and dengue fever. The risk of infection amongst IDPs is raised because many of them are forced to sleep in open areas without mosquito nets.
Currently there are 1,094 IDPs from 220 households sheltering at the Ganantaung IDP camp. They were forcibly ejected by the junta from Sittwe Township villages such as Kyauktanchay, Kyar Ma Thauk, Wahbo, Tawkan, Theintan, and Yartan.
There are currently more than 600,000 IDPs sheltering in Arakan State Many remain unable to return due to ongoing airstrikes by the junta and the persistent threat of landmines and other unexploded ordnance in the areas they have fled.
