Karenni IDP children in need of nutritious food and proper healthcare services

By DMG 30 Jun 2022

DMG Newsroom
30 June 2022, Loikaw, Kayah State

The Kayan Youth, a local civil society organisation, has called for help for children displaced by fighting in eastern Myanmar’s Kayah (Karenni) State.

More than 30,000 children in various camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Kayah State are malnourished and in need of regular medical care, according to a member of the Kayan Youth.

“The number of children arriving at the IDP camps in Kayah State now stands at more than 30,000. They need daily nutrition and healthcare services. We would like to ask for contributions for IDP children,” the Kayan Youth member added.

Local relief groups in Kayah State are also struggling to render assistance due to a declining economic situation and the tightening of security checks along routes that are used to transport food for displaced people.

“We have financial problems to provide food and medicine to the IDPs. We cannot supply adequate relief items to the IDPs and can only fulfil their requirements to a certain extent,” said a member of the Karenni Logistics Team (KLT).

“We have donated 10 bags of rice to more than 800 IDPs from 78 households in recent days. We can also provide limited nutrition for children,” the KLT member added.

In addition to a general lack of medicine in the displacement camps, IDP children are suffering from the flu and diarrhoea, with case counts rising due to the rainy season, according to health workers treating the IDPs.

“At the beginning of the rainy season, more than 1,000 IDP children became ill with the flu and diarrhoea due to unsafe drinking water and inadequate medicine. Five kids died of flu and diarrhoea. The deaths of the children are attributed to the Myanmar military’s restrictions on transportation of medicine, and the fighting,” said one health worker.

Fighting in eastern Myanmar between the military regime and the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF) has taken place with some regularity for more than a year, with more than 170,000 people forced to flee their homes.