UN agency says the total number of IDPs has surpassed one million since the Feb 1, 2021 coup
This handout from Cambodia’s Foreign Ministry taken on June 30 shows Myanmar Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin (right) meeting with Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, ASEAN special envoy to Myanmar, in Naypyidaw. (Photo: Cambodian Foreign Ministry/AFP)
The number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) has increased in conflict-torn Myanmar as fighting escalates between the army and the combined forces of established armed groups and new militias.
Armed clashes have continued across several regions, especially the northwest and southeast where the junta has used air strikes and heavy artillery that have led to civilian deaths and thousands fleeing to safer areas.
More than 5,400 people from 12 villages were displaced in Kyaukkyi township in eastern Bago while more than 3,000 people from Launglon township in the Tanintharyi region have sought refuge in nearby forests and safe areas since mid-June, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The agency said the total number of IDPs has surpassed one million, including 758,000 people displaced by conflict since the Feb. 1, 2021 coup.
Fierce fighting erupted between the military and the combined forces of the Karen National Defense Organization and the Karen National Liberation Army after a military outpost near Myawaddy township was attacked on June 26.
The junta has used air strikes to defend a strategic outpost and one of its fighters strayed into Thailand’s airspace last week, prompting the Thai army to step up patrols along the border, according to media reports.
“The Southeast Asian nation is facing a rapidly growing food security crisis”
Fighting was also raging between the Karen National Union (KNU) and junta forces in the eastern Bago region where the military conducted aerial and artillery attacks over the weekend.
An estimated 40,000 people from 26 villages have been forced to flee their homes and are in dire need of food and adequate shelter, according to the KNU.
The military regime has continued its reign of terror in central Sagaing region where it faces strong resistance from newly emerged people’s defense forces.
More than 5,000 residents from 10 villages in Sagaing region’s Depayin township fled their homes as the junta airlifted reinforcements into the area, according to local media reports.
The UN has warned that the Southeast Asian nation is facing a rapidly growing food security crisis, and nearly one in four people are already food insecure.
“Ongoing violence, economic crisis, recurrent climate-induced shocks, population displacement and Covid-19, among other factors, are disrupting the entire national food system,” the Food and Agriculture Organization said in a June 29 report.
The junta’s atrocities remain unabated despite world leaders calling on the military regime to end the violence and pursue dialogue, activists say.
Backed by the UN, the US and the EU, ASEAN has been leading diplomatic efforts to tackle Myanmar’s political crisis but has been ineffective in pressuring the military regime.
Prak Sokhonn, the ASEAN special envoy, ended a second working trip to Myanmar on July 3 with no tangible results. He was not allowed to meet with deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other opposition figures.
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