Scores of villagers displaced from two Buthidaung Twsp villages

By Admin 04 May 2023

DMG Newsroom
4 May 2023, Buthidaung

The Myanmar military has recently forced residents of Phayonechaung and Ngatpyawchaung villages in Arakan State to leave their homes.

Junta troops questioned villagers about three or four missing soldiers from the 22nd Light Infantry Division (LID), and told villagers of the two villages on April 30 to leave temporarily. The villagers are staying in the houses of relatives and friends in other villages, as well as in Buthidaung town.

“They said three or four soldiers were missing. We replied that we had no knowledge about it. They then told us to leave the village. At first, they said elderly and disabled villagers could stay in the village. But two days later, they told all the villagers to leave. So, we left unwillingly,” said a community elder of Phayonechaung Village.

Phayonechaung is home to 18 households with over 80 villagers. Ngatpyawchaung has 23 households and a population of more than 100. Troops from the 22nd LID have been stationed in the two villages since an informal ceasefire was reached between the military and Arakan Army (AA) in November of last year.

One community elder of Ngatpyawchaung Village said: “At first, they told us to stay away from the village for some three weeks. When we asked why, they told us not to ask that, and said two weeks is OK. Finally, they told us to just stay away from the village for a week. So, villagers left. We don’t know why they told us to leave the village.”

When asked, the junta-appointed Buthidaung Township administrator U Zaw Win told DMG to ask the Myanmar military about military issues. DMG’s calls to Arakan State security and border affairs minister Colonel Kyaw Thura went unanswered.

A resident of Phayonechaung Village who is taking shelter at Thaykankwasone Village said: “We have to stay at relatives’ houses. They are feeding us. And we have to make do with what we have.”

Residents of the two villages were first displaced by the latest fighting between the Myanmar military and the AA last year. They returned to their villages after the junta and AA reached their informal ceasefire, on humanitarian grounds, more than five months ago, only to be displaced for a second time this week.