UN to restart food aid distribution in Burma

Burmese authorities have agreed to allow the United Nations to resume its distribution of food in northern Rakhine State, the World Food Programme said yesterday.

The food aid operation had been suspended in Rakhine for two months after the Burmese army launched an ostensibly anti-terrorist crackdown that has sent more than half a million ethnic Rohingya refugees fleeing to Bangladesh.

A UN fact-finding team that visited Rakhine said it had found evidence of a “consistent pattern” of killings, torture, rape and arson against the Rohingya minority there.