Rising military tensions take toll on Paletwa IDPs

By DMG 04 Jun 2022

DMG Newsroom
4 June 2022, Paletwa, Chin State 

Internally displaced people (IDPs) in Chin State’s Paletwa town are struggling with soaring food prices due to rising tensions between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army (AA), according to displacement camp managers. 

The regime has imposed restrictions on both road and water transport following fighting with AA troops near the village of Abaung Thar in Paletwa Township on May 26, with AA and regime troops being deployed in close proximity to one another, said residents. 

Food prices have skyrocketed in Paletwa as a result, causing significant hardship for IDPs and other local populations. 

“For the time being, the World Food Programme (WFP) still provides food supplies,” Ko Maung Hla Win, secretary of Sike Pyo Yay IDP camp in Paletwa, told DMG. “The regime has blocked all the roads. We still have one month’s supply of food. But we don’t know where to flee if clashes break out again. We have nowhere to flee. Houses [at the displacement camp] are damaged and it is not OK when it rains.” 

The camp shelters more than 700 people from several villages who fled homes following clashes near their villages in late 2019. 

Currently, IDPs in Paletwa are only reliably supplied by the WFP, and they have not received food supplies from the regime’s Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement for about six months.  

“There are tensions in the region, and it will cause many hardships for the IDPs if more clashes happen. Food prices are already soaring. I’m afraid the supply routes will be blocked if clashes recur,” said an IDP from a displacement camp opened at a Paletwa Township football pitch. 

More than 800 ethnic Arakanese, Khumi and Daingnet villagers are taking shelter at the camp.

DMG was unable to contact U Nay Lin, social affairs minister for the junta’s Chin State government, for comment on the growing difficulties faced by IDPs in Chin State. 

When asked by DMG, Chin State Ethnic Affairs Minister U Sein Hla Tun said he had no knowledge about the IDPs in Paletwa. More than 7,000 IDPs remain at displacement camps in Paletwa town.