Foods Ran Out at Homes, out of Stock in Markets, Prices Hiked Up in Maungdaw

MAUNGDAW — Many Rohingya in the homeland face starvation as their stored foods ran out, necessary items are out of stock in the markets and prices are hiked up during the movement control due to growing fears of Covid-19 in Maungdaw District, Rohingya Eye reported.

As the government has controlled the movement in addition to the previous restriction, people from the outskirts and villages can’t came to the Maungdaw central market and there are no orders from the retail or wholesale buyers nor there are enough deliveries and supplies from the sellers.

A local trader told RVision, “We used to sell for hundreds of thousands of kyats a day. It’s now hard to reach 30K to 50K. It means that even the economically upper-class people are in need of external assistance to survive if the situation continues. We are facing shortage of supplies.”

On the other hand, the labor class people are extremely suffering, as the people in rural areas are mostly daily laborers working for wages.

“I have to go to work daily to find for survival food. Due to the movement control I can’t go to work.” to Amir Hakim, head of a family including his 4 children, wife and the parents, adding “we have reduced the daily meals to one meal a day. In addition, the village retail shops and the markets have hiked up the prices of groceries available in stock.”

Recently the government started distributing some foodstuffs among the neediest people in particular areas. In Quarter 5 of Urban Maungdaw, each family is given 15 Kg of rice, 750 grams of oil, about 1.5 kg of onion and one packet of salt, while in Quarter 2, 10 kg of rice, 500 gram of oil, 750 gram of onion and 250 gram of garlic for each family are distributed.

Government ordered people to practice preventive measures including social distancing, frequent hand washing and practice of good hygiene, and controlled the movement.

It also imposed curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. until 30^th April. The border trades with neighboring Bangladesh are temporarily stopped.

No confirmed cases of Covid-19 are reported yet in the region. There was a suspected case of a Mro man who recently visited China and was later tested negative. According to the source, another infectious skin disease is spreading in the region and many people are suffering from itchy skin rashes. Normally the region has poor healthcare and Rohingya have very limited access to it.