(UCAN): Fighting in Myanmar has prompted thousands more to flee from Chin state and seek refuge in Mizoram state in neighbouring India. According to the latest report by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, there were 1,800 new arrivals in the last week of September alone, bringing the total number of refugees to 48,000. The report said more people are expected to cross into India due to the intensifying conflict.
“Humanitarian assistance to support Covid-19 recovery and seasonal shocks continues via the provision of food and CRIs [core relief item] to the most vulnerable new arrivals from Myanmar and nearby host communities,” the report said.
The agency said that nearly 6,200 children from Myanmar are now enrolled in government-run and private schools in Mizoram.
Mizoram shares a long border with Myanmar, where the military seized power on 1 February 2021, toppling Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government and putting several political leaders and activists behind bars [Sunday Examiner, 7 February 2022].
Humanitarian assistance to support Covid-19 recovery and seasonal shocks continues via the provision of food and CRIs [core relief item] to the most vulnerable new arrivals from Myanmar and nearby host communities
The exodus of people from Myanmar’s western Chin state has been steady since fighting erupted between the military and various militias following the coup.
Since August, renewed fighting in Rakhine state between the military and the Arakan Army has spilled into Paletwa township, in southern Chin state, leading to ethnic Chin becoming internally displaced.
Churches, NGOs and other organisations in Mizoram have been at the frontline providing food and shelter for Myanmar refugees.
Impoverished Chin state has been at the vanguard of resistance to the military regime and has seen fierce retaliatory attacks including aerial bombing, heavy shelling and indiscriminate attacks on civilians. Dozens of churches have been burned down, vandalised and destroyed by junta soldiers while priests and pastors have also been targeted.
The Church has played a key role in providing humanitarian aid to internally displaced persons [IDPs], especially in the dioceses of Loikaw in Kayah and neighbouring Pekhon, in southern Shan state, as well as Hakha and Kalay and the Archdiocese of Mandalay which cover parts of the embattled Sagaing region.
Myanmar’s bishops have repeatedly called for access to the increasing number of IDPs who are in dire need of food, shelter and medicine.
“In our country, thousands of people are suffering from the political, economic and humanitarian crises while churches and monasteries have been bombed, villages have been burned and people are killed,” Charles Maung Cardinal Bo said in a homily on October 9.
As of October 3, there are an estimated 1,349,000 IDPs, including 1,019,000 people newly displaced within the country since February 2021, according to the latest UN refugee agency report.
