Over 416,000 People Need Aid In Myanmar's Rakhine State

Almost 140,000 displaced people are living in dire conditions in camps and many others without citizenship in isolated villages.

UNITED NATIONS - The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that three years since outbreaks of inter-communal violence in Rakhine State in Myanmar, more than 416,000 people continue to need humanitarian assistance.

This includes almost 140,000 displaced people living in dire conditions in camps and many others without citizenship in isolated villages, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Friday at a daily news briefing here, Xinhua reported.

"Access to adequate healthcare and livelihoods remains a major concern for displaced people and vulnerable communities in Rakhine State," he said.

"Restrictions on the freedom of movement of hundreds of thousands of people in Rakhine State severely compromise their basic rights to food, healthcare, education, livelihoods and other basic services, leaving them dependent on humanitarian aid," he said.

Up to 40,000 displaced people in the country's impoverished western state of Rakhine State live in camps that are within 500 meters of the coastline. With the monsoon season underway, weather conditions along the coast are expected to deteriorate.