MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th March, 2021) The situation in post-coup Myanmar remains tense, with the Southeast nation going through violent protests, which is further exacerbating the Rohingya crisis, David Swanson, the UN regional spokesman in Bangkok, told Sputnik, adding that the international community should help resolve the situation with the Muslim minority.
"At this point, we are doing our best to assess the current situation on the ground; however, there are uncertainties with regards to engagement. While we assess the situation, we remain committed to providing critical humanitarian assistance to those in need. Advocacy for those in need, including the Rohingya people, will not diminish, and the international community must remain engaged," Swanson said.
According to the UN official, more than 336,000 people were displaced from their homes across Myanmar, including 250,000 cases of protracted displacement.
"An estimated 600,000 Rohingya people remain in Rakhine State, including some 126,000 effectively confined in camps or camp-like settings established in 2012. They continue to be unable to move freely and have extremely limited access to basic health and education services," Swanson noted.
The conflict between the Myanmar military Myanmar and the Arakan Army in Rakhine State has left over 100,000 people displaced, the UN regional spokesman added.
"Humanitarian access to more than a third of these displacement sites remains cut off," he said.
The Rohingya are a minority Muslim group considered autochthonous to Myanmar's Rakhine state. In 2017, the military of the Buddhist-majority state targeted the Rohingya in an unprecedented violence campaign, forcing more than 700,000 members of the community across the border to Bangladesh as refugees.
