Support is being mobilised to assist the thousands of people displaced by the latest fighting in Kachin State but improved access is needed to assist affected populations, particularly children, the United Nations Children’s Fund said in an April 22 press release.
“We must provide urgent help,” UNICEF’s representative to Myanmar, Mr Bertrand Bainvel, was quoted as saying in the release.
It said the recent fighting between government forces and the Kachin Independence Army near Man Win Gyi and Momauk in southern Kachin State had forced thousands of people, including an estimated 1,000 children, to leave their temporary homes.
“For many of them it is the second or third time that they have been forced to take to the road in the past year” because of fighting, the release said.
“Although reports state that the fighting has slowed in the past few days, the situation remains tense,” UNICEF said.
“The fighting and associated displacement of families has increased the health risks that children face, including by reducing their access to safe, reliable water and sanitation facilities,” Mr Bainvel said.
The release noted that Kachin and northern Shan State were already among the most heavily mined areas in Myanmar and landmines continued to cause harm to vulnerable populations as well as inhibit the delivery of humanitarian aid.
“With the renewal of hostilities UNICEF is concerned that new minefields will further increase the dangers to children,” it said.
“It is an unfortunate fact that the heightened risk that children face does not disappear even after the fighting stops, because they face a significantly increased risk of falling victim to commonly used landmines and even to possible recruitment into the combatants’ armed forces,” Mr Bainvel said.
Along with other UN agencies and international non-government organisations, UNICEF was supporting local NGOs to help threatened children and their families, the release said.
Although life-saving aid was being mobilised it was not enough “because children need peace and stability to grow and develop,” Mr Bainvel said.
“For the sake of Myanmar’s children, all parties must immediately commit to do all they can to end the violence, to protect children from exposure to land mines and recruitment into the armed forces and to commit to peace,” he said.
“This is absolutely essential if children in Kachin are to experience the same hope and improved prospects that are now being experienced by so many other children in Myanmar as a result of the recent reforms.”
