Humanitarian agencies are raising alarm over a deepening food crisis in Myanmar’s conflict-ravaged Rakhine State, warning that starvation could soon engulf thousands of families unless urgent international assistance arrives. The World Food Programme (WFP) has issued an appeal for fresh funding, saying its current resources are grossly inadequate to meet the soaring needs of displaced people, including the 140,000 Rohingya Muslims who have been confined to camps since communal violence erupted in 2012.
The civil war triggered by the 2021 military coup has devastated Myanmar’s economy and left millions in need of aid. Yet, the blockade imposed by the military in Rakhine has left the region particularly isolated and vulnerable. Residents and aid workers say the situation is deteriorating rapidly, with reports of families resorting to desperate measures in the face of acute food shortages. In April, a father living in the Ohn Taw Kyi camp, the largest settlement for displaced Rohingya near the state capital Sittwe, consumed insecticide after adding it to his family’s food. The 50-year-old man died, though his wife and children survived due to quick intervention from neighbors. Similar tragedies have since been reported, including a Rakhine family of five who also died after poisoning themselves in June, and an elderly couple who hanged themselves last week, unable to cope with mounting hunger and lack of resources.
The WFP says its ability to respond has been crippled by a sharp decline in global contributions. Funding for the agency has fallen by 60 percent this year compared with 2024, leaving it able to reach only one in five people facing severe food insecurity across Myanmar. In March, the WFP was forced to cut aid to Rakhine, despite a spike in the number of households unable to survive on their own. “People are trapped in a vicious cycle—cut off by conflict, stripped of livelihoods, and left with no humanitarian safety net,” said Michael Dunford, WFP’s representative in Myanmar. “We are hearing heartbreaking stories of children crying from hunger and mothers skipping meals. Families are doing everything they can, but they cannot survive this alone.”
The roots of Rakhine’s crisis stretch back years, from the 2012 communal clashes to the mass expulsion of Rohingyas in 2017. In 2023, the military tightened its blockade, aiming to starve out the Arakan Army insurgents, who have since captured most of the state. The move cut off trade and transport links, leaving Sittwe besieged and reachable only by air and sea. Farmers have abandoned their rice harvests for lack of buyers, while Rohingyas remain barred from fishing, one of their few means of sustenance. Camp residents describe surviving on little more than boiled taro roots as food prices soar fivefold.
The military’s conscription drive has added to the strain. Thousands of Rohingya men have been pressed into service to defend Sittwe, while families unable to provide fighters are forced to contribute financially. Many have had to use their meager WFP allowances to pay these levies, even after payments resumed in June following a temporary suspension in March. Aid workers say debt, begging, school dropouts, domestic violence, and even human trafficking are now rising as households scramble for survival.
The WFP has refrained from singling out donor governments, but analysts say the crisis has been compounded by the Trump administration’s decision to slash USAID contributions by 87 percent. Last year, Washington alone accounted for nearly half of the WFP’s global funding, contributing close to $4.5 billion. The sudden drop has left a gaping hole in relief operations.
The United Nations had warned as early as last November that famine was looming in Rakhine. Nine months on, with the WFP again appealing for help, aid officials say the warnings are turning into grim reality. Without urgent global action, they fear, Myanmar’s most vulnerable communities could soon face a humanitarian disaster on a catastrophic scale.
