Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The United Nations (UN) says the hunger crisis in Myanmar is predicted to increase to 6.2 million hungry people by October 2021. Now the UN says it needs funds to feed people in Myanmar.
The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) says it is 70% short of the US$ 86 million or Rp 1.2 trillion (assuming Rp 14,300/US$) needed over the next six months, as Myanmar is going through many crises.
WFP said the huge wave of Covid-19 infections soaring across Myanmar was exacerbated by the hunger crisis, rising food and fuel prices, political unrest, to violence and displacement.
“We have seen famine spread further and deeper in Myanmar,” said WFP Myanmar country director Stephen Anderson AFP.
“Nearly 90% of households living in slums around Yangon said they had to borrow money to buy food; incomes were badly affected for many.”
WFP launched its urban food response in May, targeting two million people in Yangon and Mandalay, Myanmar’s two largest cities. So far this year, 1.25 million people in Myanmar have received food, cash and nutrition assistance from WFP.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva via video link from the capital Naypyidaw, Anderson said the third wave of Covid-19 to hit the country was “almost like a tsunami”, creating a “huge catastrophe” and severely impacting people’s lives.
“The Myanmar people are facing the most difficult moment in their memory of life. It is very important for us to be able to access all those in need and receive funds to provide them with humanitarian assistance,” he said.
Myanmar is still in turmoil and economic paralysis since the military seized power from civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, 2021. The country has experienced mass protests and a brutal military response since the coup.
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