IDPs at Mrauk-U displacement camp in need of assistance

14 Sep 2022

DMG Newsroom
14 September 2022, Mrauk-U

More than 100 internally displaced people (IDPs) at the Myatanzaung displacement camp in Arakan State’s Mrauk-U Township are facing livelihood hardships, according to camp officials.

A total of 136 IDPs from Waithali, Pauktawpyin, Ohphokan, Lekka and Phayaraok villages have recently arrived at the Myatanzaung displacement camp to take refuge, and they are facing difficulties, said the abbot of Myatanzaung Monastery.

“We need shelters for the newly arrived IDPs, and we also face various difficulties due to lack of donors. We asked for help from ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] for the IDPs, but our request was denied,” the abbot added.

“We set up makeshift tents on the vacant land plot, but they [IDPs] are not comfortable on rainy days. Some donors contributed rice to the displacement camp for them,” the abbot said.

The IDPs fled to safer locations as junta troops stationed near their villages fired heavy weapons into the villages indiscriminately following clashes with the Arakan Army, said Daw Ma Aung Seo, an IDP from Pauktawpyin Village.

“Junta soldiers were deployed on Thinkyait Hill and in Pauktawpyin Village, and often fired heavy weapons into the village. Since arriving in the displacement camp, we have faced livelihood hardships,” she said.

“We have to cook food in a kitchen made of tarpaulin during the day and sleep at a religious edifice [dhammayon] at night. We could bring nothing with us; we have to borrow mosquito nets from others. It is impossible for us to return home for the time being.”

The abbot provided rice enough for two weeks and kitchen utensils for IDPs, she added.

A total of 1,242 IDPs from 278 households have been sheltering at the Myatanzaung displacement camp after being displaced by fighting in some cases dating back to the previous two-year conflict between the Myanmar military and Arakan State, which came to a halt in late 2020.

Thousands of locals have been forced to flee more recent, ongoing fighting between the military and AA in Chin State’s Paletwa Township, and Mrauk-U, Rathedaung and Maungdaw townships in Arakan State.

The number of IDPs increased by over 600 in Maungdaw Township, 3,000 in Rathedaung Township, and about 1,800 in Mrauk-U Township, and more than 1,250 in Paletwa Township, according to a statement released by the United League of Arakan (ULA), the AA’s political wing.