Dysentery claims lives of more than 80 Rohingya IDPs in Sittwe

More than 80 people, most of them Rohingyas living in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), died of dysentery in Rakhine State’s Sittwe Township in the first three weeks of April, according to local relief workers. Deaths have been reported in at least 10 camps and villages located in or near the Rakhine State capital, but there are also believed to be many other unreported cases, a person working with IDPs in the area told Myanmar Now. “The outbreak of dysentery began more than a month ago, but the deaths started this month. Now, many people have died, and there are still many villages where we have not been able to compile the death toll,” he said. More than half of the confirmed deaths were reported in the Say Ta Ma camp and the village of Ohn Taw Gyi (South), which each had 27. The total number in all locations at the time of reporting was 86, including 10 in Ohn Taw Gyi (North) and eight in Sittwe’s Aung Mingalar Ward, according to the IDP relief worker. At least 10 of the deceased were elderly, while many others were children, he added. “This happens every year, but this year, the people who get sick are unable to access medical treatment. They can’t get to hospitals and clinics, and the NGOs that help to maintain hygiene in the camps can’t get in,” he said, citing restrictions imposed by junta authorities as a result of the ongoing conflict in Rakhine State. Thousands of Rohingya families have lived in makeshift camps in and around Sittwe for more than a decade following successive waves of violence targeting the group that began in 2012. In May of last year, nearly 100 camp inhabitants—around a third of them children—were killed when Cyclone Mocha hit the area, according to figures compiled by the Alin Yaung Youth Charity Association, a local social welfare group. More recently, Rohingya living in camps have been pressured by the military to join its fight against the Arakan Army, which has been waging a major offensive in the state since late last year. Conditions in the camps are primitive, with limited access to clean water, food, and medicine, and only one toilet for every 40 people, according to residents. A volunteer working with another aid organisation said that the regime has prohibited relief workers from providing health services in the camps, making life even harder for those forced to live in them. “The military council has prohibited social aid organisations that provide health services from accessing the camps and offering medical treatment,” he said, noting that even the 2,000 kyat (less than $1) that it costs to buy oral rehydration salt is prohibitively expensive for most IDPs. While refugee camps in Bangladesh, where more than a million Rohingya have been forced to shelter, have also had recent outbreaks of dysentery, few have died of the disease, according to a volunteer at a hospital run by international aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières who spoke to Myanmar Now last week. Bawshi Ahmad, a resident of the camp in Sittwe’s Aung Mingalar Ward, said he had to borrow money to send his year-and-a-half-old son to the hospital, but it was too late to save him. “The child started experiencing diarrhoea on April 8, accompanied by fever and vomiting. But we couldn’t afford to take him to the doctor for treatment,” he explained through an interpreter. Three days later, he said, the child died en route to a hospital. “I feel very sorry. We didn’t have money, so we couldn’t get the child to get medical treatment. Jobs are scarce. It’s very distressing,” he said.

Dysentery claims lives of more than 80 Rohingya IDPs in Sittwe

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