Dozens of internally displaced Rohingya in Burma's Rakhine state have died of starvation this year, according to a report released June 12 by the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK). Nearly 150,000 Rohingya have been confined to internment camps in the state since 2012, relying on humanitarian assistance to survive. Tens of thousands are experiencing starvation as a result of a trade blockade and severe humanitarian access restrictions imposed by the ruling junta in response to escalating clashes with the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic Rakhine militia. The AA has also been accused of atrocities against Rohingya living in areas under its control.

The BROUK report builds on a similar one issued in November 2024 by the UN Development Program, which documented "severe lack of income, hyperinflation, and significantly reduced domestic food production," bringing Rakhine state's economy to the brink of collapse and placing two million people at risk of starvation. The same day BROUK released its report, UN Special Envoy on Myanmar (Burma) Julie Bishop warned the General Assembly that without ceasefires and improved aid access, Burma would remain "on a path to self-destruction." More than 20 million people in Burma are in need of humanitarian assistance.

From The New Humanitarian, June 13.

See our last report on the struggle in Rakhine.