The Myaing Gyi Ngu shelter for internally displaced persons has run out of all food except rice, leaving the 5,000 residents without enough to eat, according to officials leading the camp.
The Kayin (Karen) State temporary shelter began housing thousands of people last September when fighting erupted between a splinter faction of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), the Tatmadaw and a border militia.
Donations to the camp have been dwindling since the beginning of the year, with nothing but rice now left, according to the official responsible for the camp’s warehouse, Naw Tin Hla.
“We had rice and salt at first. Now, we don’t even have salt anymore. We only have rice,” said Naw Tin Hla. “The IDPs don’t have any jobs and they have no support. They can’t go back home so how are we supposed to live? Who should we ask for help?”
The shelter’s secretary, Saw Aung Win Tun, said that aid for the IDPs has become scarce.
“No organization comes to help us now. The government doesn’t come to us. We can’t return home. The [IDP’s] houses were burned down. No one has cleared the landmines. We have to start our lives from the bottom again. We want to return home, but [can only do so] if the situation is better,” he said.
Nan Say Awar, a member of the state-level Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee (JMC-S), said that she has seen the houses that were burned. She said however that she is unable to help the families at the Myaing Gyi Ngu shelter because her role is only to monitor the situation.
More than 7,000 people living between Myaing Gyi Ngu and Mae Tha Wor fled during the flare up in fighting last year. Most of the families who were displaced continue to live in the Myaing Gyi Ngu temporary shelter.
Translated by Thida Linn
Edited by Laignee Barron
