Condition of Myanmar Rohingya camps 'dire'

Valerie Amos

The UN's humanitarian chief has described conditions for thousands of displaced Muslim Rohingya in western Myanmar as "dire" and said both Muslim and Buddhist communities are living in fear.
Valerie Amos, who toured violence-racked Rakhine state on Wednesday, said in a statement released overnight that she was "very concerned" by the situation there, with many people in overcrowded, unsanitary camps.
The United Nations said more than 115,000 people remain displaced by the two rounds of communal violence that erupted in Rakhine in June and October. Scores died in the conflict and whole villages, mainly those of Rohingya Muslims, were forced to flee their homes.
"I was very concerned by some of what I saw today," said Amos, the UN's under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.
"Tensions between the communities are still running very high," Amos said.
Amos, who travelled in the state as part of a wider visit to Myanmar, said that in one area, Myebon, thousands were packed into "overcrowded, substandard shelter with poor sanitation".
"They don't have jobs, children are not in school and they can't leave the camp because their movement is restricted. The situation is dire," she said.
Decades-old animosity between Buddhists and Rohingyas exploded in June after the apparent rape and murder of an ethnic Rakhine woman sparked a series of revenge attacks.