Doctors Without Borders said Monday its teams had been threatened and stopped from reaching areas in Myanmar hit by communal bloodshed, leaving tens of thousands without essential health care. More than 100,000 people have been displaced and dozens killed since June in Rakhine state in two major eruptions of violence between Rakhine Buddhists and Muslims, mainly from the Rohingya minority. Whole neighbourhoods have been torched since the second round of unrest began last month.
France's Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF) said its teams face "ongoing antagonism generated by deep ethnic divisions", which had stopped them from treating both those newly displaced and patients of its longer-term projects in the region.
"That we are prevented from acting and threatened for wanting to deliver medical aid to those in need is shocking and leaves tens of thousands without the medical care they urgently need," said operations manager Joe Belliveau in a statement. Some ethnic Rakhine leaders have campaigned against international aid agencies in recent months, claiming they favour the Rohingya. Aid groups deny the accusations.