MYANMAR’S junta has suppressed information about a severe food crisis by pressuring researchers not to collect data about hunger and aid workers not to publish it, an investigation has found.

Research by Reuters found that international watchdog the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification removed its colour-coded assessment of Myanmar from its global map displaying levels of hunger over fears for the safety of researchers.  

The watchdog also kept its detailed analyses of how the country was facing one of the worst food crises in the world to itself.

The aid workers interviewed described a harrowing environment in which most data must be collected clandestinely.

They said aid agencies are afraid to publish their findings on malnutrition and food insecurity or even share them with one another.

Reuters also uncovered at least four examples of how the junta blocked aid distribution or seized food supplies intended for the hungry.

In Rakhine, home to the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority, the military in recent months has prevented the delivery of food and medicine to severely malnourished children in an area gripped by cholera, according to aid workers.

UN special envoy for human rights in Myanmar Tom Andrews told Reuters that the junta is “systematically restricting” humanitarian aid access, contributing to the spread of cholera and other infectious diseases.

He said he has received reports that many of the hundreds of thousands of needy people cut off from international assistance “are on the brink of starvation.”