GENEVA, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations World Food Program (WFO) said Friday that Myanmar will allow it to start redistributing food in northern Rakhine state.
"WFP has been given the green light to resume food assistance operations in the northern part of Rakhine. We are working with the government to coordinate the details," WFP spokesperson Bettina Luescher said at a UN briefing in Geneva.
She did not have details or the time when the distribution of food would begin.
"We just have to see what the situation on the ground is. It's very hard to say these things if you can't get in," the WFP spokesperson said.
WFP said it had supported 110,000 people in northern Rakhine from both ethnic Rakhine and Rohingya populations.
The UN migrations agency, IOM, said some 604,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25, bringing the total number in the country to 817,000.
For two months UN agencies have not been able to access northern Rakhine to deliver aid although WFP provisions to 140,000 people in central Rakhine state have continued.
The announcement by the food agency on northern Rakhine came as the UN children's fund, UNICEF, said that some fleeing Rohingya children were "close to death" from malnutrition arriving in Bangladesh.
"Since August 25, we have had to stop treating 4,000 children with severe acute malnutrition in northern Rakhine because we have had no access," said UNICEF spokesperson, Marixie Mercado.
