by Hafizur Rahman
Kyawktaw Township, Arakan State | December 12, 2025
Malnutrition is worsening across Kyawktaw Township, where Rohingya families say extreme food shortages are pushing children to the edge of survival, forcing some households to survive on rice water alone as hunger deepens with each passing day.
Residents say daily life has become a cycle of hunger and anxiety. Mothers describe watching their children lose weight and strength, unable to provide proper meals or medical care. In many homes, weak cooking fires burn in the evenings, producing little more than smoke and boiled rice water.\
Earlier this week, a health team linked to the Arakan Army arrived in the area carrying small hygiene supplies, including red round soaps. Local Rohingya volunteers showed the team their own blue square medical aid boxes, basic supplies the community has relied on and shared for months amid severe shortages.
According to volunteers, the visiting team appeared visibly shaken when they realised how limited the available resources were. One volunteer said the team stood silently for several moments after seeing the boxes, seemingly struggling to grasp how families had been surviving with so little.
A Rohingya father from a riverside village told Rohingya Khobor that hunger dominates every moment of life. He said families wake up thinking about food and go to sleep thinking about food, while children cry at night from empty stomachs.
A young volunteer said the team expressed disbelief that the community had been depending on such minimal supplies for such a long time. He said the reaction reflected how invisible the suffering of Rohingya families in Kyawktaw has become.
An elderly woman caring for her malnourished grandson said they are not asking for anything beyond survival. She said families need only enough food and medicine to stay alive.
In the evenings, residents gather in small groups, sharing whatever little food remains. Many say they feel forgotten and abandoned, yet they continue to hope their voices will be heard before the crisis spirals further out of control.
