The military junta in Myanmar hides information about the famine in the country, puts pressure on monitoring organizations and interferes with the distribution of humanitarian aid - Reuters

The military junta that has seized power in Myanmar is hiding the extent of hunger in the country and is putting pressure on human rights workers to try to stop the spread of this information. This is stated in an investigation by Reuters.

In particular, one of the world's most authoritative organizations monitoring the problem of hunger, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), was forced to remove Myanmar from the world map on its website, which shows the level of food security in different countries. Also, in an effort to protect its analysts and data collectors, the organization did not publish three detailed reports on the food crisis in Myanmar. Reporters have revealed that Myanmar's military secretly detained several food security researchers last year. Nothing is known about their further fate.

In addition, junta militants interfered with the distribution of humanitarian aid for the famine-stricken or even confiscated it. One place where this is happening is Rakhine State. It is home to the persecuted ethno-religious minority of Rohingya Muslims. The state is experiencing shortages of food and medicine and, according to aid workers, a cholera epidemic is developing. This year alone, at least 70,000 residents of the state were forced to flee to neighboring Bangladesh due to famine. In November, the UN Development Program warned that more than 2 million people remained at risk of starvation in Rakhine. In total, 14.4 million people are facing severe food shortages in Myanmar, according to IPC analysis.

In 2016–2017, the Myanmar army began mass deportations of the Rohingya people, which many international organizations, including the UN, called ethnic cleansing and genocide. In 2021, after pro-democracy forces won parliamentary elections, the junta overturned the election results, jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and began a hunt for her supporters that led to a full-scale civil war that continues to this day.