About 400 houses destroyed by fire in Buthidaung Twsp during clashes

By Kyaw Myo Aung 30 Jan 2021

Kyaw Myo Aung | DMG
30 January 2021, Buthidaung 

Some 400 houses were destroyed by fire in Buthidaung Township, Arakan State, over the course of two years of conflict between the Tatmadaw and Arakan Army, according to figures from the township administrator. 

U Shwe Hla Aung, the Buthidaung Township administrator, said the information was collected at the instruction of the state government. 

“We compiled the list of houses that were destroyed by fire during clashes through ward/village administrators. There are some villages where we could not compile the list,” he said.  

U Aung Kyaw Tun, manager of Lanma Kyaung IDP camp in Buthidaung Township, said: “We’ve been forced to be displaced from home for two years. We cannot know how many houses were destroyed by fire. So, the government needs to conduct field inspections to get the exact figure.” 

A total of 393 houses from 14 villages in Buthidaung Township were destroyed by conflict-related fires, according to the Buthidaung Township General Administration Department. 

Nwayonedaung village tallied the most houses destroyed, at 121. Uyintha and Alaechaung villages came in a distant second and third, with 48 and 44 houses razed respectively.  

U Win Myint, spokesperson for the Arakan State government, told DMG in December that the state government was compiling a list of houses destroyed by fire as part of efforts to rehabilitate the affected communities. 

According to figures from the Rakhine Ethnics Congress, about 2,000 houses across 48 villages in Arakan and southern Chin states were destroyed during two years of fighting between the Tatmadaw and Arakan Army, which began in late 2018.