Armed attackers abduct villagers, set fire to house in Myanmar western state

Fifteen armed attackers have taken away two villagers, setting fire to their house in Maungtaw, Myanmar's western Rakhine state as aid from the United Nations started to flow into the affected areas, official media reported Wednesday.

The 15 armed attackers arrived at the Phykarli village on Monday night, breaking into their house and taking the two villagers away after setting fire to their house.

Shortly after the incident, the government troops launched an area clearance operation around the village, the report said.

Meanwhile, the local authorities also arrested two displaced people on suspicion of providing aid to the attackers.

On the same day, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement that the World Food Program (WFP) started to deliver aid to some four villages in Maungtaw.

The UN statement said about 150,000 people had been cut off from food, cash and nutritional assistance for the past four weeks.

This was the first time that humanitarian access has been granted to the affected areas of Maungtaw since three border posts were attacked by armed men on Oct. 9, in which nine policemen were killed.

Food and household goods donated from across the country were being successively airlifted from Yangon to Sittway by military helicopters to be delivered, reports said. Enditem