Over 370 IDPs from downtown Ann displacement camp return home

By DMG 06 Nov 2021

DMG Newsroom
6 November 2021, Ann 

More than 300 internally displaced people (IDPs) who had been taking refuge in the town of Ann, Arakan State, returned home on November 6, according to a camp official.   

A total of 371 IDPs from 74 households taking shelter at No. 2 IDP camp in downtown Ann returned home on Saturday morning, said U Kyaw Wai, manager of the camp. 

“This is the second time the IDPs have returned home under the government’s arrangement. The government provided K600,000 to each IDP household and 10 kinds of relief items,” he told DMG. 

The military council provided K500,000 per household and the Department of Disaster Management supplied K100,000 to each IDP household, as well as relief items such as clothes and kitchen utensils. The IDPs were transported home in vehicles. 

The IDP returnees were from Mingaladon, Natywa, Alekyun, Mawgyun and Tachinpyin villages in Dar Let Chaung village-tract, Ann Township. 

IDPs registered last week to return home, but some remain concerned about the dangers of landmines, said Ko Myo Lwin, a resident of Ann. 

“Landmines are also a threat to the farmlands owned by the IDP returnees. Will the IDP returnees be able to work and eat freely there? The military council has cleared landmines, but farmlands have not been cleared,” he added.  

Sixty-three IDP families from No. 2 IDP camp in Ann Township have returned home for the first time. There are still about 900 IDPs who have not been able to return to their homes, according to camp officials. 

More than 235,000 people were displaced by two years of fighting between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army in Arakan State. More than a year into an unofficial ceasefire between the warring parties, tens of thousands of IDPs remain at displacement camps.