Narinjara News


Rice Bags from UN World food Programme arrives at Western Burma

Maungdaw, 26 February:  On 6^th February, rice bags from the UN World Food Programme arrived at Maungdaw, the border town of Rakhine State in the western part of Burma, our correspondent said.

Twelve hundred bags of rice was transported on the Zaw Min Htay II motor vessel to Ngakhura Village on the Naaf River that serves as the common border between Burma and Bangladesh under Maungdaw Township.  The bags of rice will be distributed among the poor people and the refugees repatriated from Bangladesh in the area.  

At present the UNHCR, BAJ (a Japanese NGO) and MSF are engaged in distributing the rice jointly with the State Peace and Development Council junta officials for developmental activities and repatriation of the Burmese Muslim refugees from Bangladesh.

Recently the prices of essentials have recorded a sharp increase so that the people are facing an almost-famine like situation, our correspondent said.  In the rural areas the scarcity is more conspicuous since the transport of rice is forbidden in the village tracts, our correspondent quoted a villager elder.  #