Dilapidated IDP shelters need repairs ahead of rainy season: displacement camp officials

By Admin 08 Apr 2023

DMG Newsroom
8 April 2023, Sittwe

Shelters in camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State are damaged and need help to repair them before the rainy season fully sets in.

Displacement camp officials and IDPs said that the lack of jobs meant that they could not afford to repair the damaged shelters.

“We are struggling with food and have not prepared anything for the rainy season. The shelters are already deteriorating, so it is quite difficult for us to continue living in the displacement camps. We need bamboo and timber to repair IDP shelters ahead of the rainy season,” said U Oo Kyaw Win, manager of Taungminkalar IDP camp in Kyauktaw Township.

The shelters in the Yanaungmyay IDP camp in Buthidaung, where more than 500 people live, are damaged and are not in good enough shape for those IDPs living there.

“IDP shelters in the displacement camp need to be repaired urgently. We cannot afford to repair damaged IDP shelters. The shelters are about two years old, so they are all damaged,” said U Maung San Shwe, an IDP from Yanaungmyay IDP camp.

IDP shelters in the Cedipyin displacement camp, where more than 1,300 people from Rathedaung Township are sheltering, are damaged, so the IDPs are worried about living in the displacement camp in the rainy season.

IDP shelters in the camp have been built for about five years, so they are in a position to be rebuilt.

“IDPs are unable to return home for the time being. We would like to request the local government or international nongovernmental organisations to build new homes for IDP ahead of the rainy season,” said Ko Aung Min Soe, an aid worker in Rathedaung Township.

DMG phoned U Hla Thein, spokesperson of the Arakan State military council, regarding the need for assistance to rebuild homes for IDPs, but he could not be reached.

Some IDPs have returned home at the arrangement of the regime four months after the military observed an informal ceasefire with the Arakan Army (AA) in late November.

Still, there are tens of thousands of IDPs who dare not return home due to military troops’ presence near the villages and the risks of landmines.

The total number of IDPs in Arakan State, including those who remain at IDP camps due to 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).