Emergency relief supplies needed for recently displaced Ponnagyun Twsp residents

By DMG 14 Nov 2022

DMG Newsroom
14 November 2022, Ponnagyun 

Local people recently displaced by fighting between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army (AA) troops in Arakan State’s Ponnagyun Township are in need of emergency relief supplies. 

Some 5,000 villagers from Sin Inn Gyi, Padetha, Yar Chaung, Alae Kyun, Tan Khoe, Yay Pauk Chaung, Kyaw Zan and Kywe Htoe villages, as well as internally displaced people (IDPs) from the Yay Phyu Kan displacement camp have been forced to flee since November 10. 

“In our Alae Kyun Village, all the villagers have fled,” said a resident. “Shells landed outside our village, and helicopters strafed our village. No one was hurt, but all the villagers, including children and elderly people, have fled.” 

Some 300 IDPs are taking shelter at Ingyin Tawya Monastery in Ponnagyun town, and need emergency relief supplies including clothes, blankets, and food. 

“Mainly they need food. Yesterday, I could not even arrange curries for IDPs,” said the abbot of the monastery. “They only have some meals today after I received some donations this morning.”  

The monk added: “We have to cook around two-and-a-half sacks of rice for them a day. We still have one week’s worth of rice for them. It is windy these days, and they need blankets and warm clothes. For the time being, we still can accommodate IDPs in our existing buildings. But if more IDPs come, we will have to build temporary shelters.” 

The Ponnagyun Township IDPs are also taking shelter at two other Buddhist monasteries, and in Poe Shue Pyin and Nataung Kya villages. 

“Women need underwear and sanitary pads. And children and elderly people need blankets and jackets, because most of them fled with only the clothes on their backs. Mainly they need food,” said a volunteer helping the IDPs. 

The AA ambushed a Myanmar military convoy between Padetha and Sin Inn Gyi villages on November 10. The military unleashed a barrage of artillery shells in response, forcing residents to flee their homes as they rained down on multiple villages in the area. 

From August through October, more than 16,000 people were displaced by the renewed hostilities between the two sides in Arakan State, and in neighbouring Chin State’s Paletwa Township. The number of IDPs, including those who were displaced by the previous fighting and remain at displacement camps, is approaching 100,000, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.