Residents of some towns in Rakhine State, like Mrauk-U, say they have an additional reason – besides hunger – for lying awake at night: listening to shells fired by the regime’s military to gauge how close the whistles and explosions get to their homes.
In every town and village in the western state, even those where civilian homes are not being shelled, shortages of food, medicine and fuel are worsening, even though prices have nearly doubled since the junta imposed a blockade last month.
Even some charities say they can no longer deliver services because they have no fuel.
The majority of the state’s more than 3 million people have been facing shortages of necessities since the blockade was imposed on November 13, residents and volunteers say.
Food prices are skyrocketing, fuel is in short supply and access to medical care is constrained. At the same time indiscriminate shelling is a daily occurrence in some areas.
A bag of rice that sold for 120,000 kyats in the state capital before the blockade now sells for more than 200,000 kyats, residents of Sittwe say.
“Because the Sittwe-Yangon highway is blocked, the flow of commodities has halted, resulting in a surge in prices,” a resident of the coastal city told The Irrawaddy.
Residents of Ponnagyun say even some basic foods are now unaffordable. Prices surged after Ponnagyun Myoma market went up in flames w Myanmar’s navy shelled it on November 24.
Across the state, residents say that even though they are now paying 20,000 kyats a liter for fuel they cannot buy as much as they need. As a result, some charities can no longer provide services.
“Although people ask us to send patients to the hospital, we cannot because we have no fuel,” a charity worker in Ponnagyun Township told The Irrawaddy.
Medical treatment is also being curtailed by restrictions on movement imposed by junta troops. Even patients in need of emergency treatment are prevented from leaving their township, residents of the state said.
One patient from Mrauk-U Township who needed dialysis and another who needed an operation were not permitted to go to Sittwe Hospital last week, a charity worker in Mrauk-U Township said. The driver of the ambulance they were in had to turn around and return home after troops at a junta checkpoint in Kyauktaw Township prevented him from going further, the charity worker told The Irrawaddy.
“Before, [junta troops] allowed us to pass [the checkpoint] if we had a transfer letter from a hospital. Now, they don’t even allow us to show the transfer letter,” he explained.
Mrauk-U residents said their anxiety surges at night when junta troops use heavy weapons to shell their town.
“They shell artillery every night. We cannot sleep well because we worry that the shells will hit our homes,” one resident of the town told The Irrawaddy.
Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing had a different story on Monday. He said residents of the state were suffering the impact of a crisis created by Arakan Army. It had created the violence in Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw and Paletwa townships, Min Aung Hlaing said.
The Arakan Army is fighting the regime’s military in Rakhine State’s Pauktaw, Minbya, Rathedaung and Maungdaw townships. It launched an offensive against the Myanmar military by attacking five military bases in Rathedaung, Maungdaw and Minbya townships last month.
The junta responded by blocking all highways in and out of the state on November 13.
Even the price of ingredients like onions and garlic has soared 70 percent, a resident of In Mrauk-U Town said.
