Junta to move Arakan IDPs to Pyapon camps

By Admin 23 Dec 2024

DMG Newsroom
23 December 2024, Mrauk-U

The military regime is forcing internally displaced people (IDPs) from Arakan State taking refuge in Yekyi and Kyonepyaw townships in Ayeyarwady Region to relocate.

The IDPs are from Gwa and Thandwe townships in Arakan State, and they were told on Sunday to relocate by December 25.

"All the people holding citizenship ID cards indicating that they are from Arakan State were told to relocate to Pyapon [Township in Ayeyarwady Region]. Elderly persons can stay, but all the middle-aged and young men and women were told to leave," an IDP woman in Yekyi Township said on condition of anonymity.

Hundreds of IDPs are taking shelter in villages in Yekyi Township, staying with relatives, friends or in makeshift shelters they have built.

The regime is reportedly building IDP camps in Pyapon Township.

IDPs are concerned that they will be conscripted by the regime if they move to its IDP camps in Pyapon.

A woman helping Arakan IDPs in Ayeyarwady Region said: "The regime's motive is clear. It will send IDPs to the battlefield. It has been seriously depleted."

Arakan IDPs taking shelter in Kyonpyaw Township were ordered during the weekend to relocate within four days.

One Kyonepyaw resident said: "The regime said IDPs in Kyonpyaw must also relocate. We don't know how the regime will arrange for them."

On December 14, Ayeyarwady Region's junta-appointed chief minister ordered Arakan IDPs taking shelter in Chaungtha and Shwe Thaung Yan towns in Pathein Township to relocate within one week.

Thousands of Arakan IDPs are taking shelter in Chaungtha and Shwe Thaung Yan and some have moved to Yangon, Pathein and Bago following the order. The AA has seized 13 townships in Arakan State and is focused on seizing the whole of Gwa Township.

Tens of thousands of locals in Gwa, Taungup and Thandwe townships have been displaced by fighting between Myanmar's military regime and the Arakkha Army (AA).