Kyauktaw IDPs struggle to relocate amid conflict fears

By Admin 01 Jan 2024

DMG Newsroom
1 January 2024, Kyauktaw

Fearing an outbreak of fighting in Kyauktaw, Arakan State, many local residents are moving to safety, but internally displaced people (IDPs) are having difficulty doing so.

Many IDPs say they are not safe in the displacement camp where they currently take refuge and want to relocate like residents, but face financial hurdles that they are struggling to surmount.

“Residents in urban areas have fled to safer locations. IDPs have financial difficulties fleeing to safer locations. The prices of bus fares are going up due to fuel shortages. We feel insecure in the displacement camp,” said an IDP man from a displacement camp near a railway station in Kyauktaw.

IDPs taking refuge in downtown Kyauktaw from villages along the upper reaches of the Kaladan River such as Tinma, Marlar, Montthanpyin, Pyaingtaing, Kyauktan, Myauktaung and Meekyaungtet were displaced by fighting in 2020.

There are about 10 displacement camps in downtown Kyauktaw. Thousands of IDPs have been sheltering at the displacement camps for about four years.

“We are in trouble. We lost everything during the previous fighting. We feel insecure taking shelter at the displacement camp,” said an IDP woman from Kyauktaw.

IDPs who rely on food assistance contributed by donors are facing food shortages due to the junta’s blockading of land and water routes to Arakan State since renewed fighting began on November 13.

IDPs in Kyauktaw are worried about their livelihoods even if they can escape to safer locales.

“We don’t know exactly when the fighting will erupt. We are worried about our safety following the Mrauk-U battle. We will face more hardships even if we flee to safer locations. But we need to survive in the long run,” sad an IDP man from Shwe Kyaung displacement camp in Kyauktaw.

Junta troops and the Arakan Army (AA) are fighting fiercely for control of the Tinma tactical command base east of the Kaladan River in Kyauktaw Township.

The Arakan Army has made seizing junta bases and military camps in urban parts of Arakan State a focus of its offensive operations in recent weeks, following the launch of “Operation 1027” in late October.

Fighting between the military and AA is reported with regularity in Pauktaw, Mrauk-U and Ramree townships, and both sides are also active in Ponnagyun, Kyauktaw, Kyaukphyu, Ann, and Myebon townships.