By Kyaw Ye Lynn

YANGON, Myanmar

The United Nations said Monday that at least 92,000 people have been displaced in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state due to military operations there over past few months.

Myanmar’s military began the latest crackdown in the Maungdaw area of the Rakhine state last October after a gang killed nine police officers in three separate attacks.

“At least 92,000 people are now estimated to be displaced from their homes to other parts of northern Rakhine or to Bangladesh,” said the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

“In Maungdaw north (Rakhine State), more than 23,000 people are estimated to be internally displaced,” UNOCHA said in its weekly report, adding that this is the area the most affected by the violence.

“This is in addition to the 69,000 people now estimated by the UN to have crossed into Bangladesh.”

Though emergency food aid has been distributed by national staff to almost 35,000 people in the area since Jan. 13, UNOCHA said protection activities remain suspended and most international staff remains confined to the township centers.

It also stated that the fighting between government troops and ethnic rebels has displaced about 23,000 people in the northern Kachin state and northeastern Shan state since last November.

Among them, about 11,000 people were newly displaced by recent fighting in the areas, it said.