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Basara IDP camp near Sittway, Myanmar. Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2013. Recent tension in Myanmar have forced thousands of ethnic Rohingya Muslims into makeshift camps.
© David Longstreath/IRIN
By IRIN News
February 13, 2014
SITTWE, 13 February 2014 (IRIN) - More than 170,000 people remain displaced and in need in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State after two rounds of inter-communal violence between Buddhist ethnic Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya communities in 2012. The vast majority - 138,000 - are Rohingya, while close to 5,000 are ethnic Rakhine. Another 36,000 people are living in 113 isolated villages, with minimal access to livelihoods and basic services.
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According to government figures, a total of 167 people were killed in the violence (78 in June and 89 in October), while 223 were injured (87 in June and 136 in October), and more than 10,000 buildings and homes were damaged or destroyed.
IRIN visited two camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) located outside Sittwe, the provincial capital of Rakhine State, where much of the violence took place: Basare, a Muslim Rohingya camp, and Set Yoe Kya, an ethnic Rakhine camp, to see how residents were faring. Many in both camps wonder whether life will ever return to normal.