Over 26,000 displaced in Myanmar: UN

ROME - Agence France-Presse

The humanitarian crisis is growing in Myanmar as homeless people fled to packed camps or clustered close to their charred houses in western Myanmar yesterday, after deadly unrest that the U.N. said displaced 26,500 from mainly Muslim communities.

Whole neighborhoods were razed in last week’s clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine state, Agence France-Presse reported. Some 75,000 people are already crammed into overcrowded camps after clashes in June. The U.N. said an estimated further 26,500, including 4,000 who fled in boats to the state capital Sittwe, had been forced from their homes after the latest violence.

Wave of arson

Thousands of homes were destroyed in a wave of arson. Most of those made homeless have remained near their villages, according to the U.N., raising concerns about getting aid to remote areas. Meanwhile, Turkish aid workers in Bangladesh were kept under tight police surveillance for a few hours according to activists. The activists later allowed to deliver the aid, one of their colleagues in Ankara told Hürriyet Daily News yesterday.