The Mongpaw Kachin Baptist Church in Northern Shan State has received 109 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), who fled from their villages to avoid heavy fighting between the Burma Army and the Kachin Independence Army, church sources said.
A mother, who gave birth just ten days ago, is included among the IDPs, the sources said.
The IDPs in the church are mostly women, children and the elderly who arrived at the church on Tuesday.
It took a day to get to Mongpaw, also Mungbaw on foot and the IDPs slept a night in the jungle on the road between Loikang (KIA Brigade 4 headquarters) and Mongpaw, a woman IDP told the Kachin News Group.
An IDP assistant in the church said, “Most IDPs are women and children. They look weak and could not walk properly on arrival. We have to pick up them by car about 5 miles from Mongpaw.”
A woman IDP from Dima said a 120 mm mortar round fired by government troops landed in her village on Sunday, Sept. 25, injuring a teenage ethnic Palong boy.
Today, Sept. 28, more IDPs will arrive at Mongpaw and the church is preparing cars to go and pick them up in the area five miles from Mongpaw, a young pastor in the Church said.
Since the government started its storm-offensive against the Loikang-based KIA 4th Brigade, near Kutkai on Sept. 24, hundreds of IDPs have been fleeing to secure areas outside the war zone- including Lashio, Kutkai, Nam-um, Nampaka, Muse, Kyukok (Pangsai), Mongpaw, Namtau and Mongkoe, said local IDP observers.
Aid, food and shelter for IDPs have been provided mainly by Kachin churches, according to the IDPs.
KIA 4th Brigade officials said over 20,000 IDPs have fled vand are finding shelter in the government-controlled areas and nearby forests.
On the other hand, over 30,000 Shan IDPs have been produced in Northern Shan State by the war started between the Burma Army and Shan State Army-North (SSA-N) in March, according to Shan IDP groups.
In Kachin State, over 30,000 IDPs have sought shelter in KIA and government-controlled areas since the civil war started in June.
