Thousands of IDPs in Kyaukphyu Twsp need emergency aid

By Admin 28 Dec 2024

DMG Newsroom
28 December 2024, Kyaukphyu

Thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Kyaukphyu Township, Arakan State, are facing food and shelter difficulties, with approximately 6,000 of them in need of emergency assistance.

Of the more than 11,000 displaced people in Kyaukphyu Township, about 6,000 are living in rural areas where transportation is difficult, giving rise to multiple crises.

“About 5,000 IDPs receive monthly aid from an organisation, while the remaining 6,000 have not received any assistance. Now, in addition to food and medicine, the IDPs urgently need warm clothes and blankets during the winter,” said an official from the IDP Emergency Assistance Committee – Kyaukphyu.

Since August, an organisation that does not wish to be named for security reasons has been providing monthly assistance of K50,000 or more per IDP to about 5,000 displaced people in Kyaukphyu Township. But the remaining 6,000 IDPs have not received any such help and are in urgent need of aid.

The IDPs are facing food shortages and concerns about their long-term survival due to soaring prices and a lack of jobs.

“Even those who are settled in their own areas are facing many difficulties at this time. It is even worse for those of us who have fled the war,” said an IDP woman from Mintattaung Village. “We do not know when we will be able to return to our homes, nor do we know how many days we will have to live without food, so it is very difficult to think about the long term.”

Some 13,000 local people from at least 20 villages in Kyaukphyu Township have been forced to flee junta artillery attacks, airstrikes and military raids and arrests of civilians since the latest fighting in Arakan State began in November of last year.

The situation is tense in Kyaukphyu Township between the military and the Arakkha Army (AA), with the AA controlling much of the township, with the exception of about a dozen military-controlled villages in and around Kyaukphyu Town and Maday Island, where Chinese investment projects are located.