Fears for supplies as exodus grows from clashes
People displaced by an upsurge of fighting in Myanmar's Chin State voiced concerns over shelter and supplies, as more flee the conflict between the army and insurgents opposed to the junta that seized power in February.
The exodus also threatens to push more people over the nearby border with India, where an Indian government official said more than 15,000 had sought refuge since the Feb. 1 coup that has plunged the Southeast Asian country into chaos.
"When it rains, we don't have strong shelters," said Mai, who fled on foot from the town of Mindat, in western Myanmar, at the weekend and is now at a village 15 km (nine miles) away.
Those fleeing say thousands of people left Mindat after the army attacked to uproot fighters of the Chinland Defence Force, who are aligned with a National Unity Government formed by the junta's opponents.
"There are also reports of civilians killed and injured and civilian property damaged or destroyed," the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday.
Since overthrowing and detaining elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the junta has struggled to impose its authority in the face of daily protests, paralysing strikes and an upsurge of fighting against old and new groups of ethnic minority fighters.
At least 10 people had been killed in Chin State in the past week, according to figures from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group. It puts the countrywide death toll since the coup at 805.
Comments