The Myanmar government shut down mobile data in several townships across Rakhine state and neighboring Chin state on June 21 last year, causing panic among residents desperate for information about the unrest.
It’s critical for civilians to get the information needed to stay safe during a global pandemic
The Myanmar military has been complicated a bloody civil war since January 2019 against the Arakan Army (AA), a rebel group fighting for more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.
The conflict has seen hundreds of injured and tens killed as well as tens of thousands of civilians displaced, with both the military and the AA trading allegations of abuses. For this reason, the Myanmar government shut down the Internet service across Rakhine state.
Rakhine state is also home to the Rohingya, a mostly Muslim minority that faced a brutal crackdown by the military in 2017.
Some 750,000 fled to neighboring Bangladesh from the violence that has led to charges of genocide against Myanmar at the UN’s top court.
The 600,000 Rohingya remaining in Rakhine live in what Amnesty International has branded “apartheid conditions”, with little freedom of movement.
The United Nations Rights Agency (UNHRC) on Friday asked Myanmar to restore the internet in Rohingya-dominated areas of Rakhine and Chin provinces. In a statement from its Bangkok office, the UNHCR asked Myanmar to end the internet shutdown in those two provinces. The U.N. agency warned the unprecedented internet blackout is now also endangering the lives of vulnerable civilians facing the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Friday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) also called for an immediate end to “the world’s longest government-enforced internet shutdown”.
We want to know more information regarding COVID-19, what’s happening to the displaced people in Sittwe [Rakhine’s capital] and what’s happening in Bangladesh,” Abdullah, a Rohingya resident from Mrauk U township, told AFP news agency by phone
