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15-08-2025, 01:20 PM
Six killed, dozens injured by junta airstrikes target Magway villages. Air & artillery strikes across Pauk Township have hit monasteries, homes, and shelters since late May. Here. Is war in Myanmar approaching its ‘culminating point’?.
Nearly five years into a conflict being fought on multiple fronts, it is still far from clear who will prevail in the end. Then with desperate Myanmar villagers scavenge for food as hunger bites hunger surges in Rakhine State as conflict and US-led aid cuts choke vital supplies...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 getting worse day by day,” a 60-yr-old, whose business is faltering as prices rise, incomes drop—a grim equation driving others to scour 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 military fights an ethnic armed group, it has blockaded the territory—throttling supplies to its estimated population of 2.5 million. The impoverished state has long been a focus of international aid organisations, but worldwide cutbacks spearheaded by US President Donald Trump’s “America First” freeze on humanitarian funding have forced them to retreat. “The commodity prices are really high,” said 64-yr-old Mrauk U resident Hla Paw Tun.“Many people are selling, but few are buying,” he said. “We have been struggling to survive day by day.” Rakhine has long been wracked by civil conflict—site of alleged military atrocities against resident. Rohingya minority around 2017, which some countries have deemed a genocide. More than one million Rohingya now live in Bangladeshi border camps—and the UN said last month a massive new influx had seen 150,000 arrivals over the previous 18 months. Meanwhile, nearly half a mil remain displaced inside Rakhine.
Nearly five years into a conflict being fought on multiple fronts, it is still far from clear who will prevail in the end. Then with desperate Myanmar villagers scavenge for food as hunger bites hunger surges in Rakhine State as conflict and US-led aid cuts choke vital supplies...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 getting worse day by day,” a 60-yr-old, whose business is faltering as prices rise, incomes drop—a grim equation driving others to scour 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 military fights an ethnic armed group, it has blockaded the territory—throttling supplies to its estimated population of 2.5 million. The impoverished state has long been a focus of international aid organisations, but worldwide cutbacks spearheaded by US President Donald Trump’s “America First” freeze on humanitarian funding have forced them to retreat. “The commodity prices are really high,” said 64-yr-old Mrauk U resident Hla Paw Tun.“Many people are selling, but few are buying,” he said. “We have been struggling to survive day by day.” Rakhine has long been wracked by civil conflict—site of alleged military atrocities against resident. Rohingya minority around 2017, which some countries have deemed a genocide. More than one million Rohingya now live in Bangladeshi border camps—and the UN said last month a massive new influx had seen 150,000 arrivals over the previous 18 months. Meanwhile, nearly half a mil remain displaced inside Rakhine.
