"Rakhine state, a conflict-torn region in western Myanmar, finally reported the presence of COVID-19 as the country recorded nearly 200 cases late this week. Two men in Rakhine, who recently returned from Malaysia, tested positive for coronavirus, raising concerns about the possible spread of the virus in overcrowded camps across the region. “Now we have two patients, and imagine the situation in overcrowded camps once a refugee gets infected,” said San Kyaw Hla, who chairs the Rakhine regional parliament. “Sittwe, [capital of Rakhine] has overcrowded camps, but IDPs [internally displaced persons] still don’t have a chance to adopt protective measures,” he told Anadolu Agency. “This virus is indiscriminate. It won’t spare anyone, regardless of race and religion.” According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs this February, Sittwe housed 103,557 out of 130,886 Rohingya Muslims, who were displaced by communal violence in mid-2012, in 16 makeshift camps. More than 700 ethnic Rakhine recently arrived in Sittwe as they fled fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, a mainly Buddhist group that claims to fight for the rights of ethnic Rakhine. Ongoing and escalating fighting displaced more than 164,221 civilians, mostly ethnic Buddhists, in 10 townships in Rakhine state since January 2019, according to the Rakhine Ethnic Congress (REC), a local non-profit. “There were only around 30,000 displaced people last April, and now the number exceeds 160,000,” said REC Secretary Zaw Zaw Tun. “People are fleeing their homes to escape the fighting that is happening on a daily basis,” he told Anadolu Agency..."