UN food agency appeals for $11 million to feed displaced people in western Myanmar

By Associated Press, Published: November 6     

SITTWE, Myanmar — The United Nations food agency has issued an urgent appeal for $11 million to feed more than 110,000 people displaced by violence between Buddhists and Muslims in western Myanmar.

The U.N. World Food Program’s Asia spokesman, Marcus Prior, says some people who fled from their burning homes are now living in impromptu shelters under trees and in rice paddies.

Prior said Tuesday that the money would help feed those displaced by the unrest between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state for the next six months.

The U.N. agency made its first emergency food deliveries to some of the latest wave of 35,000 displaced people last week and will reach most within the next few days by boat and truck.

The vast majority of the displaced are Rohingya Muslims.

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