Junta troops in Maungdaw, Rakhine State, have looted a rice warehouse belonging to the World Food Programme (WFP) and subsequently set it on fire, according to eyewitness reports cited by the Arakanese news outlet Narinjara News.
Officials from Myanmar’s military junta have acknowledged the looting of the WFP warehouse in Maungdaw. Major General Zaw Min Tun, a spokesperson for the junta, admitted on June 27 via a military-owned newspaper that they took 2,000 sacks of rice. He asserted that they took the rice on June 21 to safeguard it from the Arakan Army and to distribute it to local residents. He denied the allegations of arson, attributing the fire to an Arakan Army drone attack. However, he did not mention whether the WFP was consulted before the rice was taken.
A Muslim Rohingya resident told Narinjara News that on June 22, junta soldiers distributed sacks of rice to Muslim residents of Maungdaw in a bid to garner support. On that day, 2,019 families received the distributed rice.
The WFP condemned the incident in a statement, calling for an immediate end to the destruction of humanitarian facilities and the looting of food and other supplies, which undermine their relief efforts in Maungdaw.
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