Hundreds of IDPs in Ponnagyun Twsp displacement camp seek emergency aid

By Admin 18 Feb 2023

DMG Newsroom
18 February 2023, Ponnagyun

Internally displaced people (IDPs) at the Ganantaung displacement camp in Ponnagyun Township, Arakan State, are reportedly facing a food shortage and require emergency assistance.

Ganantaung displacement camp houses 778 IDPs from 178 households. Because the IDPs have not received needed aid, they have had to borrow from each other to eat, said Ko Kyaw Naing, the manager of the camp.

“If one household has three pyis of rice, they have to lend one pyi of rice to another household. Previously, some civil society organisations donated relief supplies to the displacement camp. Donors have not come to the displacement camp for two months. We rely on donors as most of the IDPs have no job,” he added.

The displacement camp is located near the Sittwe-Yangon road in Ponnagyun Township’s Ganantaung Village. Camp officials said that there are few donors since the displacement camp is relatively new.

IDPs from the Ganantaung displacement camp were displaced by military shellings in 2022.

“We are in urgent need of assistance,” said Daw Htay Htay Yi, an IDP originally from Chaungtu Village in Kyauktaw Township. “We didn’t receive any assistance from the government. We were displaced by the military’s mortar strikes. We are facing various health and livelihood difficulties.”

Faced with food shortages, IDPs note that if they go to the jungles to collect vegetables or cut down firewood, they face the significant risk that they might encounter landmines.

“IDPs are struggling to make ends meet,” said Daw Than Nu, another IDP from Chaungtu Village.

Daw Than Nu added that as donors do not come to the displacement, it is necessary for the IDPs to get jobs and to create domestic livelihoods for IDP women.

IDPs across Arakan State are facing livelihood woes as they do not receive regular food aid from the military government and support from social organisations is also dwindling.

The total number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State, including those who remain at displacement camps due to the 2018-2020 fighting between the military and Arakan Army, stood at about 90,000 early this year, according to a January 11 report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).