Aid organisations are seriously concerned about a deteriorating humanitarian situation in southern Kachin and northern Shan states and have warned it could worsen after the rainy season begins, says the United Nations agency playing a coordinating key role in the relief effort.
The deterioration in the situation was due to an increase in insecurity and the displacement of thousands of people in fighting in both areas in recent weeks, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a press release issued on May 16.
OCHA said fighting between the Tatmadaw and the Kachin Independence Army in southern Kachin State since April 10 had affected several villages and camps for internally displaced persons, caused more than 2,700 people to leave their homes and had raised concerns for the protection of civilians trapped along the borders of China and Kachin and Shan states.
Clashes near Muse in northern Shan State on April 30 had displaced more than 600 people, the release said, adding that fighting in both areas had subsided in the week to May 16 when government peace negotiators and the Kachin Independence Organisation held talks in the Kachin State capital, Myitkyina.
OCHA said fighting in Kachin since June 2011 had displaced more than 100,00 people, who live in IDP camps or are hosted in communities on both sides of the frontline. It said 96,000 of those affected by the fighting remained displaced from their homes and were being accommodated in more than 160 locations and host communities.
International organisations were supporting local non-government organisations in responding to the needs of those affected by the fighting by providing food, drinkable water, emergency latrines and tents, said OCHA, but an emerging concern was the arrival of the rainy season.
“The approaching rainy season will bring higher risks of flooding and water-borne diseases, so water, sanitation, and hygiene will increasingly be a priority in humanitarian interventions over the next weeks,” the field coordinator in Kachin for Solidarités International, Florent Turc, was quoted as saying by OCHA.
“The deteriorating security situation is already hampering access to the affected areas and the poor conditions of the roads during the rainy season will make it even more difficult to respond from now on,” Mr Turc said.
The head of OCHA in Myanmar, Mark Cutts, praised the efforts of local NGOs for their roles in providing urgently needed humanitarian assistance to displaced and affected communities and welcomed opportunities granted to international organisations to conduct joint missions across front lines more regularly since September 2013.
“But in the long run we need full and sustained access by international actors to all affected communities to adequately support the response of local humanitarian NGOs,” Mr Cutts said.
