Mrauk-U Twsp residents unable to return home after regime troops’ visit to their villages

By DMG 02 Sep 2022

DMG Newsroom
2 September 2022, Mrauk-U 

Residents of Buywet Manhyo village in Arakan State’s Mrauk-U Township reportedly fled to nearby villages as junta troops entered their village on Friday morning. 

The residents abandoned their homes after a 60-strong military contingent entered the village and were stationed at the village’s monastery. 

In addition to Buywet Manhyo villagers, local people from Autthakan, Waithali, Phayargyi and Lekka villages also fled to nearby villages. 

“Children, women and elderly people remained in the village. Both my parents are in their 70s. We are worried about their safety. We have to send food to the junta soldiers who are currently deployed in the village’s monastery. We may flee to safer locations,” said a female resident of Buywet Manhyo village. 

The military contingent left Buywet Manhyo village for Phayargyi village and many local people — with the exception of residents from Buywet Manhyo and Phayargyi villages — returned home. 

“We are unable to return home for the time being. We are going hungry as we cannot cook rice. I think people from other villages also fled to safer locations,” said a local man from Buywet Manhyo village. 

Three civilians including a 4-year-old child were killed and eight others were injured in Mrauk-U Township on Sunday, when the Myanmar military’s Mrauk-U-based Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 377 shelled Kin Seik village. 

Thousands of local people from Rathedaung, Maungdaw and Mrauk-U townships in Arakan State, and Chin State’s Paletwa Township, have been forced to flee fresh fighting between the military and Arakan Army in recent weeks, with many of the displaced people in need of food and shelter.