Myanmar state faces famine

Myanmar’s Rakhine state, home to the Rohingya minority and engulfed in conflict between government forces and a powerful ethnic group, could face an imminent acute famine, the United Nations development agency warned in a new report.

The UNDP said in the report issued Thursday that “a perfect storm is brewing” which has put western Rakhine “on the precipice of an unprecedented disaster.” It pointed to a chain of interlinked developments including restrictions on goods from elsewhere in Myanmar and neighboring Bangladesh, the absence of income for residents, hyperinflation, significantly reduced food production, and a lack of essential services and social safety net.