Hunger drives some to suicide in Sittwe

By Admin 14 Jul 2025

DMG Newsroom

14 July 2025, Sittwe

Some among the poorest in Sittwe, Arakan State, which is still under the control of Myanmar's military regime, are reportedly committing suicide due to hunger.

In Sittwe, shortages of jobs and skyrocketing prices have led some manual workers to face food insecurity and some to commit suicide.

Five family members from Mingan Ward in Sittwe died at the hands of the parents after being unable to bear the effects of hunger, local residents said.

"They had been eating rice porridge for a long time because they didn't have enough rice to eat. That day, the parents poisoned the rice porridge that their children were going to eat. When the children died, the couple also hanged themselves," a local man from Sittwe's Mingan Ward told DMG.

The family reportedly had faced acute food insecurity since early this year due to unemployment and lack of income.

Due to the ongoing fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA) in Sittwe Township, local residents are fleeing to AA-controlled areas and mainland Myanmar, fearing that the fighting will escalate into urban conflict.

However, most grassroots remain in Sittwe due to lack of money to escape, as well as travel difficulties.

They are facing severe unemployment, rising prices, and food shortages.

In May, a Muslim family of five in a displacement camp in Sittwe suffered a similar fate as the family in Mingan Ward, according to local reports.

"They had no money to eat, so they ate sweet potatoes. At first, one viss of sweet potatoes cost K1,000. Then the price of sweet potatoes also increased and one viss of sweet potatoes cost K2,000. Then the whole family committed suicide by drinking poison," an unnamed Muslim woman told DMG, which has not yet independently confirmed the deaths.

Previously, most Muslim IDPs had managed to survive with support from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). But since the WFP stopped providing aid in April, Muslim IDPs say food insecurity is pervasive.

A local man in Sittwe said that the military regime is trying to suppress news about some of the extreme measures people are taking out of hunger.

"When the military regime learned that five family members from Sittwe's Mingan Ward had died, they immediately took their bodies and cremated them. The military regime then promptly covered up the news to prevent it from spreading," the Sittwe man said.

Since the end of 2024, communication lines in Sittwe have been cut off by the military regime, and phone lines are only available in scattered locations, making it difficult to get a real-time view of the situation in the Arakan State capital.

Residents of Sittwe are facing severe hunger due to the military regime's blockade, and begging is on the rise, they say.

"Every day, people we don't know come into our house and ask for one pyi of rice. Everyone is begging like that," said a local woman in Sittwe.

Currently, there is no fighting between the Myanmar military and the AA in Sittwe Township, but the regime has blockaded Sittwe and increased security measures.