Manaung residents struggle with severe healthcare crisis under junta control

By Admin 11 Oct 2025

DMG Newsroom

11 October 2025, Manaung

Residents of Manaung Township in southern Arakan State, which remains under the control of the Myanmar military junta, are facing a severe healthcare crisis due to acute shortages of medicines, limited medical facilities, and travel restrictions imposed by the regime.

The township’s 50-bed public hospital has been struggling with critical shortages of essential medicines and medical equipment, while junta-imposed restrictions on the transport of medical supplies and road blockades have left emergency and chronic patients in grave danger, according to local sources.

“The hospital cannot treat most diseases. There are no specialists or senior doctors, and the supply of medicine is very poor. Only a few seriously ill patients can travel to Yangon by cargo vessel for treatment — and only if the junta grants permission,” said a local man from Manaung.

Some emergency patients manage to travel to Yangon on cargo vessels that arrive roughly twice a month, but residents say that many cannot afford the cost or endure the long journey.

It reportedly costs about 400,000 kyats to transport one patient aboard a cargo vessel bound for Yangon — a journey that can take four days to a week, depending on weather and sea conditions.

Manaung, an island township in the Bay of Bengal, is effectively isolated, with no travel permitted without junta authorization, making access to healthcare nearly impossible for most locals.

As a result, residents suffering from chronic illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, and nerve disorders are struggling to survive without adequate treatment or medication.

“For people with chronic illnesses, there’s no medicine and no doctors. It feels like waiting for death. Those who have money can still manage to order medicines somehow, but most people rely on traditional healers in their villages,” said a local woman from Manaung.

According to the 2019 interim census, Manaung Township has a population of about 60,000, comprising more than 130 villages and five urban wards. Locals rely primarily on sea routes to travel to other townships.

Since November 2023, the junta has imposed travel restrictions on Manaung despite the absence of active fighting, cutting off the flow of goods and leaving residents to cope with severe shortages of food and medicine.

The regime has also banned all maritime travel without its approval — including passenger transport and cargo shipments — further deepening the island’s isolation.

“Only boat owners who pay the military or people with junta connections are allowed to travel. The rest of us are stuck here, unable to go anywhere. Everything is getting harder,” said another woman from Manaung.

The junta’s blockade of Manaung has now lasted for nearly two years, leaving residents not only with worsening health conditions but also with economic hardships that make daily survival increasingly difficult.

Nearby townships include Ramree, Kyaukphyu, Taungup, and Thandwe. Following the loss of Thandwe to the Arakan Army (AA), the junta has reportedly reinforced its military presence in Manaung, turning the island into a strategic defensive outpost with additional troops and supplies.

Local sources say the junta has strengthened its positions at Myaw Taw U Naval Base, the airstrip, and other key sites across the island, building bunkers and deploying additional troops and weapons to fortify its defenses.