Refugees living in camps in Myanmar’s northernmost state, Kachin, are at risk of facing food shortages if they do not receive additional aid, according to two local non-governmental organizations, which said that Myanmar’s government is blocking international aid groups from entering the state.
“The refugees in Maija Yang have only enough food for 20 days,” The Irrawaddy quotes Mai Li Awng, a spokesperson for local NGO Wun Tawng Ningtwey. “We cannot ask the local people for more donations, because they have been supplying food to the refugees for two months already. We face a food shortage if we don’t get further aid.”
Meantime, the Kanchin Women’s Association Thailand said in a recent report that the International Committee for the Red Cross and the World Food Program, along with other international aid organizations, have been blocked from Kanchin. A spokesperson for the organization urged donors to “push for access to the war-affected in Kachin State.”
“They must not stand by while the regime blocks aid to those who desperately need it,” Shirley Seng added, according to The Irawaddy.
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