The Myanmar army is staging photoshoots of starving Rohingya with sacks of rice to counter global criticism of its “ethnic cleansing” of the persecuted minority, camp refugees have claimed.
Myanmar says it has been providing aid to the internally displaced Rohingya people who have not fled the country since the latest escalation in violence began in late August.
But survivors have told how the relief is nothing but a prop for a propaganda purposes, and is snatched away from the clutches of the Rohingya after the pictures are taken.
The Dhaka Tribune spoke by phone to Bashir Ahmad, a Rohingya man from Maungdaw who currently lives in a camp in Rakhine but has been trying to escape to Bangladesh for the past 10 days.
“The army often comes to our villages and offers aid to the few who remained after the devastation,” Bashir said.
“They announce the time and date in advance. When we lined up for the aid, we saw many troops and Mogh vigilantes. They took hundreds of pictures of us with the sack of relief, of people standing in line, and so on.
“Once the pictures are taken, they snatch the sacks from our hands and shoo us off,” Bashir said.
Bashir finds the staged relief nothing but a mockery by the Myanmar army and the Moghs who are also behind the expulsion of the Rohingya people from their homes.
“The Myanmar army is staging the photo shoots to prove to the world that they are helping the Rohingyas so that the pressure on the Myanmar government eases.”
Bashir added that the army sometimes relents to the Rohingya’s pleas and had been known to give out between 1-1.5kg of rice.
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Bashir put the Dhaka Tribune in contact with Jakir Mia, another Rohingya man who lives in Buthidaung.
Jakir despises the Myanmar army and refused to accept any form of charity from them. He said his neighbours had no such compulsions, but they were ridiculed when the Moghs snatched the bags away from them.
To confirm the story, the Dhaka Tribune spoke to several people who arrived in Bangladesh on Friday. They had all either experienced, or heard of, the same treatment.
Jafor Alam of Buthidaung, who crossed the border on Thursday, said he and his fellow Rohingyas were compelled to hide for months while the army scoured the villages and set them ablaze.
“My family and I starved for days throughout our ordeal,” he said. “Even when we heard the army were distributing aid, we were sceptical and refused to go. But some of our neighbours, believing or maybe even hoping, went and formed a line.”
The neighbours later returned dejected with barely enough rice for just one meal for a family. They, too, could corroborate Bashir’s report.
A Rohingya woman also added that often the same sack of rice was given to several Rohingya people for the photographs. After the photographs were taken, the contents were divided among them, with each receiving a sparse quantity.
The World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday said Myanmar authorities have agreed to allow the United Nations (UN) to resume its distribution of food aid in northern Rakhine state following a two-month suspension.
The agreement, whose details are still being worked out, came as Unicef reported that Rohingya refugee children fleeing into Bangladesh were arriving “close to death” from malnutrition.
Global leaders and organisations have unequivocally called upon Myanmar to cease its aggression against the Rohingya ethnic minority.
The Rohingya are among the world’s largest stateless communities and are often described as the most persecuted minority on the planet.
Myanmar does not recognise Rohingya Muslims as citizens and forces them to live in squalid camps under apartheid-like conditions.
The latest escalation in violence by the Myanmar army and local Moghs followed Rohingya insurgent attacks against security outposts on August 25, and has forced about 605,000 Rohingya to seek refuge in Bangladesh.
Friday, June 05, 2026
