UN warns of hunger crisis in Myanmar

The United Nations yesterday said it urgently needed funds to feed people in Myanmar amid fears that up to 6.2 million could be plunged into hunger by October. 

The UN's World Food Programme said it was 70 percent short of the $86 million needed over the next six months, as the country goes through multiple crises.

A major wave of Covid-19 infections is surging through Myanmar, compounding hunger, rising food and fuel prices, political unrest, violence and displacement, the WFP said.

"We have seen hunger spreading further and deeper in Myanmar," said the WFP's Myanmar country director Stephen Anderson.

Myanmar has been in chaos and its economy paralysed since the military seized power from civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1. The country has experienced mass protests and a brutal military response since the coup.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Myanmar civil society groups yesterday rejected the appointment of a special envoy by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), saying the regional organisation should have consulted opponents of the ruling junta and other parties.

Asean foreign ministers on Wednesday appointed Brunei's second minister for foreign affairs, Erywan Yusof, as a special envoy to Myanmar to try to resolve the crisis.

The government headed by army chief and prime minister Min Aung Hlaing has approved the appointment, state-controlled media have reported.