Aid Workers Struggling to Help Rohingya Muslims
So far, the Myanmar government has only granted Red Cross organizations access to the area, Reuters reported.
The United Nations suspended its activities and evacuated non-critical staff after the Myanmar government suggested it had supported Rohingya insurgents.
Already battling against bad weather, tough terrain and obstructive bureaucracy, the Red Cross also ran into an angry mob, who believe the foreign aid agencies have ignored what they called the suffering of Rakhine Buddhists in Myanmar's poorest state.
On Wednesday a mob in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, tried to block a boat carrying International Committee of the Red Cross aid to the north, where attacks by Rohingya militants on August 25 prompted Myanmar's generals to order a sweeping counter-insurgency offensive.
The mob was armed with sticks, knives and petrol bombs, and only dispersed after police fired rubber bullets.
Four days earlier a Myanmar Red Cross truck was stopped and searched by Rakhine residents in Sittwe.
"With heightened tensions in Rakhine State, humanitarian staff and private contractors are facing serious challenges in implementing life-saving activities," said Pierre Peron, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Myanmar.
In the past month, 420,000 Rohingya have fled into neighboring Bangladesh to avoid what the UN human rights chief has called ethnic cleansing.
Foreign aid groups are now scaling up to help Bangladesh cope with a humanitarian disaster of biblical proportions.
