Thousands of IDPs in Ann Twsp in need of emergency aid

By Admin 05 Nov 2024

DMG Newsroom
5 November 2024, Ann

Thousands of local people displaced by fighting in Ann Township, Arakan State, are in need of emergency assistance, according to aid workers.

At least 3,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) from Ann Township are in need of food, shelter and medicines, and they are facing many difficulties due to the lack of assistance.

“We brought nothing when we fled home. We are in need of emergency assistance,” said Wai Hun Aung, a writer and social activist in Arakan State.

Most of the IDPs are children and the elderly. The current winter season has arrived, and they are in urgent need of warm clothes.

The IDPs are those who have fled to various places of relative safety due to fighting near their villages and the threat of the regime’s ongoing airstrikes and artillery attacks.

The Arakkha Army (AA) is on the offensive to capture the Myanmar military’s Western Command in Ann, as fighting rages and many locals are trapped in the town.

“Some of the locals escaped with the help of the AA, and there were others who escaped by various other means. But now there are many challenges for locals to escape. Therefore, there are still many people trapped in Ann,” said a local resident.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by the fighting between Myanmar’s military regime and the Arakkha Army (AA) in Arakan State, and the number of IDPs continues to rise due to the ongoing conflict.

Since the beginning of the conflict, the vast majority of those IDPs have not received help from international organisations due to junta blockades, and the support of local social organisations is also historically low due to a variety of factors including an economy in ruins since the 2021 coup.