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After clashes, Thousands are homeless in Myanmar

Yangun. After Myanmar’s worst sectarian clashes in year, thousands of people are in need of food, water and shelter in Country’s northwestern part  on Thursday.

The violence had killed 29 people as of Thursday and displaced more than 30,000, said Htein Lin, secretary of the Ministry for Border Affairs. Around 2,500 houses have been burnt down. However, there were no reports of further deaths. Scores of people are feared to have been killed in the rioting that broke out in Rakhine state on June 8.

The clashes come at a time when many Western businesses are assessing when or how quickly to invest in Myanmar after sanctions were suspended. The country is a largely untapped market of over 50 million people and rich in natural resources—many of them in ethnic-minority areas.

President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in the area on Sunday and warned the country that further bloodshed could set back its continuing transformation, which has taken Myanmar, also known as Burma, from a reclusive military state to a quasi-democracy.

Places that were flashpoints earlier in the week, including the state capital Sittwe, were quiet as violence started to subside after days of arson attacks and killings that have presented reformist President Thein Sein with one of his biggest challenges since taking office last year

“Tensions between the two groups have eased. There are around 20,000 refugees in Sittwe. Most of them are from the villages where people fled in fear of the violence,” Aung Myat Kyaw, a senator for Rakhine state, told.

“They are in need of food and, because of the heavy rain, there are concerns about the refugees’ health and whether they have enough shelter,” he added.

The army has taken hundreds of Rohingyas to Muslim villages outside Sittwe to ensure their safety.

“They are worried for their lives. The army is there so their life is secure,” said Shwe Maung, a Muslim member of parliament for the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party. “There are still so many Rohingyas in downtown Sittwe and they are afraid of being attacked.”

The United Nations and a medical aid group said this week they were pulling staff out of the area because of the violence. U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, Vijay Nambiar, travelled to the area on Wednesday.

 

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