Facing another displacement, Ponnagyun IDPs need shelter ahead of rainy season

By Admin 04 May 2024

DMG Newsroom
4 May 2024, Ponnagyun

Internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State’s Ponnagyun Township need shelter as they must move away from the farms where they are currently staying ahead of the rainy season.

IDPs who live in makeshift huts on farms and in pastures by the Ponnagyun-Kyauktaw road and near villages were told by farmers that they must move out before the rainy season so that they can grow paddy.

“We were told to move away. We have nowhere else to go and we still can’t return home,” said Daw Cho Cho Aye from Ponnagyun town.

Hundreds of displaced people are sheltering near Thayet Cho and Yoengu villages, having built makeshift huts there. They are also facing serious drinking water shortages. Each family only gets a daily quota of four pots of water.

“We are staying on farmland and the owners have told us to move away,” said IDP U Zaw Win Naing from Ywa Haung Ward in Ponnagyun town. “We can’t afford to rent land. We will have to beg the owners.”

“I would like to ask the concerned authorities and international organisations to provide what’s necessary for IDPs to spend the rainy season in safe shelter,” he added.

Ponnagyun was seized by the AA on March 13, but the AA has barred residents from returning to the town due to frequent artillery strikes by junta battalions in Sittwe.

There are more than 300,000 IDPs in Arakan State, according to the Humanitarian and Development Coordination Office of the AA.