Photo Essay: A village left to rot in Kyauktaw Twsp

The houses in Tinma Village that survived the fires have been uninhabited for years, and are showing the effects of neglect.

By Admin 11 Sep 2024

Photo Essay: A village left to rot in Kyauktaw Twsp

DMG Newsroom
11 September 2024, Kyauktaw

Tinma, a once-prosperous village along the upper reaches of the Kaladan River in Kyauktaw Township, has become a derelict shadow of its former self in the years since it was abandoned by residents.

Tinma villagers were forced to flee their homes in March 2020, following fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakkha Army (AA). Some 130 out of more than 600 houses in the village were burnt to the ground and the village has since become a portrait of the war’s toll on local communities. 

The houses in Tinma Village that survived the fires have been uninhabited for years, and are showing the effects of neglect.

Residents of Tinma Village were allowed to return home in March of this year, after the AA seized control of Kyauktaw Town.

Currently, many Tinma villagers are living in temporary huts near their damaged homes, and are facing various everyday difficulties, such as securing food, healthcare and the means to reconstruct the lives they once knew. The Tinma villagers can no longer rely on the agrarian livelihoods that they once did, and many have lost everything. The future looks uncertain at best, and bleak by most accounts.

During a visit earlier this month, a DMG reporter captured scenes of the village’s decline.