Maungdaw, Arakan State: The World Food Program (WFP) has been distributing rice and edible oil among villagers of northern Maungdaw, Arakan State since July 14, according to a schoolteacher.

WFP staff has been distributing 10 kilograms of rice per head, one kilogram of edible oil to three to four members in a family, two kilograms oil to over five members and three kilograms of oil to over nine family members.

The relief items are being distributed in villages in Nasaka areas number one to four in Maungdaw Township.

Villagers in Maungdaw Township are starving in a famine like situation over the last three weeks because of incessant heavy rain and a consequent rise in prices of essential commodities. A kilogram of rice is being sold at Kyat 550 in Maungdaw north.

Northern Arakan, especially Maungdaw and Buthidaung Townships, have been witnessing heavy rainfall. Poor people are not getting jobs and are unable to support their families resulting in some facing acute shortage of food.

Sofiya Khatoon (25), from Bawli Bazaar village tract in Maungdaw Township said, "We have four members in our family. My husband is unable to go out to work due to heavy rain, so we have no money and no rice to feed our family.  We have been starving for two weeks."

Another villager Nur Hussain (40), from the same village said, "In every village in Maungdaw Township, some of the families are starving due to heavy rain, scarcity of jobs and hike in prices of essential commodities."