International aid group Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF, has withdrawn from three strife-torn areas in western Myanmar, where fighting between ethnic minority insurgents and junta forces has trapped more than 10,000 civilians.

The French non-governmental organization, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said on Thursday it had been forced to pull out of three townships in Rakhine state because of the violence  and restrictions on its humanitarian work.

More than 10,000 civilians have been sheltering in a  school in Maungdaw town for two months. Some of them told Radio Free Asia this week they had extremely limited access to hospitals, medicine and food.

Clashes between junta forces and the Arakan Army insurgent group, which is battling for self-determination in the western state, have surged since late last year. The fighters, who have made progress against the military, have said they aim to capture Maungdaw town.

Because of the fighting, northern Rakhine state’s population, many of them  members of the  persecuted mainly Muslim Rohingya minority living in camps for the internally displaced, have faced travel bans, junta conscription under threat, blockades and shortages of  water, medicine and food.

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One person sheltering in the school in Maungdaw said MSF’s withdrawal could be devastating.

“It may cause a lot of difficulties. How can people injured by the bomb blasts get access to medical treatment if they lose access to medical care from them?” said the residents, who declined to be identified for safety reasons.

“We have absolutely no access to medical treatment,” he said.

Getting to the MSF office had already become increasingly dangerous because of the fighting in the town, the resident said.

“The office is in Ka Nyin Tan neighborhood and even residents of Ka Nyin Tan are on the run due to so many shells landing there,” he said.

The junta has banned all transport of medicine since the fighting with the Arakan Army resumed in Rakhine state in November. The ban was aimed at insurgents getting medical care. Junta forces have shut down and bombed hospitals, but the result has been that many civilians have died , residents said. 

MSF said it had been unable to provide regular health services in the central and northern parts of Rakhine state since November. 

On April 15, its office and medicine storage facilities in Buthidaung township were destroyed by fire. Since then, other private and public health services have been unable to operate in the area, MSF said in its statement. 

Warehouse blaze

In Maungdaw, other humanitarian groups have also encountered disruption to their operations.  On Tuesday, the World Food Programme, or WFP, announced its warehouse in Maungdaw township had been burned down. 

The Arakan Army, in a video released on Tuesday, accused the junta army and affiliated groups of breaking into and looting the warehouse on June 21. The junta denied that accusation. 

Junta spokesperson Maj. Gen Zaw Min Tun told the junta-controlled Myanma Alin on Thursday that the warehouse had not been vandalized, and he accused Rohingya of stealing food from it. The newspaper said  the Arakan Army had burnt the warehouse down with a drone attack. 

Junta forces delivered the WFP food aid to families in need on June 22, Zaw Min Tun told the paper. 

“The rice bags intended to support the displaced people were delivered to more than 2,000 households in neighborhoods 1, 2, 3 and 4, as well as Ka Nyin Tan and Maung Ni neighborhoods by the military council’s security forces,” he said. “One rice bag per household was distributed.”

However, the junta said in a statement  on Monday  that the Western Region Military Headquarters and departmental officials had delivered more than 2,000 rice bags, but did not mention any affiliation with the WFP. 

RFA could not confirm that the sacks of rice seen being distributed in photographs provided by the military had any WFP labels on them.

The WFP said in a statement, the warehouse contained enough emergency relief food to feed nearly 65,000 people for a  month.The organization has been unable to travel to Maungdaw since May.

 Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.