Myanmar’s ruling junta has suppressed information about a severe food crisis gripping the country by pressuring researchers not to collect data about hunger and aid workers not to publish it, it has been found.
In conversations over the past two years, junta representatives have warned senior aid workers against releasing data and analysis that indicate millions of people in Myanmar are experiencing serious hunger, according to people familiar with the matter.
In a sign of the sensitivity around this data, the world’s leading hunger watchdog — the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) — in recent weeks removed its color-coded assessment of Myanmar from the global map on its website where it displays the levels of hunger afflicting dozens of countries. The reason: fears for the safety of the researchers.
