Eating rats and snakes to survive: the brutal toll of Myanmar’s second coronavirus lockdown

Myanmar’s government has offered poor households a one-off food package and three cash grants of US$15 each as part of its relief plan

The crisis has cast a shadow over a general election planned for November 8, although Aung San Suu Kyi is still expected to win by a comfortable margin

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A volunteer wearing personal protective equipment alongside an ambulance as Yangon residents are transferred to a quarantine centre. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:20pm, 23 Oct 2020Updated: 6:03am, 24 Oct 2020

After the first wave of coronavirus hit Myanmar in March, 36-year-old Ma Suu closed her salad stall and pawned her jewellery and gold to buy food to eat.

During the second wave, when the government issued a stay-home order in September for Yangon, Ma Suu shut her stall again and sold her clothes, plates and pots.

With nothing left to sell, her husband, an out of work construction labourer, has resorted to hunting for food in the open drains by the slum where they live on the outskirts of Myanmar’s largest city.

“People are eating rats and snakes,” Ma Suu said through tears. “Without an income, they need to eat like that to feed their children.”

A medical worker take a swab sample of a woman to test for Covid at a quarantine facility in Yangon. Photo: AFP

They live in Hlaing Thar Yar, one of Yangon’s poorest neighbourhoods, where residents shine flashlights in the undergrowth behind their homes, looking for some night creature to stave off their hunger.