Desperate Myanmar villagers in Rakhine scavenge for food as hunger bites

AFP

People in western Myanmar have been driven to scavenging for bamboo shoots, as humanitarian workers warn a wartime blockade and aid cutbacks led by Washington have caused hunger cases to surge.

“Another day has gone, and I have to struggle again for another day,” fruit vendor Kyaw Win Shein told AFP in the town of Mrauk U in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

“It is getting worse day by day,” the 60-year-old, whose business is faltering as prices rise and incomes drop — a grim equation driving others to scour the countryside for sustenance.

Rakhine state — a riverine slice of coastal Myanmar bordering Bangladesh — has witnessed intense suffering in Myanmar’s civil war, triggered by a 2021 coup deposing the democratic government.

As the military fights an ethnic armed group, it has blockaded the territory — throttling supplies to its estimated population of 2.5 million.