The UN World Food Programme has launched an emergency response in Myanmar, where monsoon flooding threatens to push already vulnerable communities further into hunger.
The agency has begun distributing fortified biscuits in Laymyethna Township, in the Ayeyarwady region of southwestern Myanmar, after two weeks of heavy rainfall breached river embankments and inundated villages. Rapid assessments by WFP indicate that more than 32,000 people across nearly 100 villages have been affected.
Some 20 tonnes of fortified biscuits have already been dispatched to UN partners, providing immediate food assistance to 10,000 people.
“Flooding is a recurring threat, but this year it is impacting communities already battered by multiple underlying crises,” said WFP representative Michael Dunford.
The floods represent a fresh blow for a country where an estimated 12.4 million people are already going hungry amid civil war, mass displacement, economic hardship and high food prices. WFP has appealed for urgent funding and sustained access to prevent the crisis from deepening further.
