UN warns of ‘mass deaths’ in Myanmar after 100,000 flee fighting

UN says people fleeing military’s ‘brutal, indiscriminate attacks’ in eastern Kayah are in dire need of food and water.

A United Nations rights expert has warned of “mass deaths from starvation, disease and exposure” in eastern Myanmar after “brutal, indiscriminate attacks” by the military forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes in Kayah State. In a statement on Wednesday, Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur for Myanmar, called for urgent international action, saying attacks by the military – which took power after a February coup – were “threatening the lives of many thousands of men, women and children” in Kayah or Karenni state. “Let me blunt,” Andrews said.  “Mass deaths from starvation, disease, and exposure, on a scale we have not yet seen since the February 1 coup, could occur in Kayah State absent immediate action.”