‘I don’t feel safe’: Villagers in northern Shan struggle to rebuild

The sun was starting to drop as Mya Thidar sat at home, anxiously waiting for her daughter to return from the “volunteer” job the local junta police demanded she perform. If the girl didn’t show up to volunteer, the family would have to pay a fine they couldn’t afford. After more than a year on the run from fighting in northern Shan State, Mya Thidar, who is raising two young daughters on her own, had recently returned to their small village on the outskirts of Nawnghkio, Shan State. They were still struggling to rebuild their lives, piecing together a fragile sense of normalcy amid the uncertainty that still lingers over the state. “I haven’t even unpacked my things,” Mya Thidar, in her 50s, said. “I only take out what I need and put it back. I don’t feel safe.” Returning home brought some relief. Life in her village was still hard, but at least she no longer had to shoulder the crushing costs of living in a safer town. Even so, Mya Thidar has found that being home has not freed her from financial strain. Unexpected expenses continue to weigh heavily on her family. “I will be fined 15,000 kyat ( about 4 USD) if I don’t send my daughter for the voluntary work, and I also have to pay 200,000 kyat (about 50 USD) to repair the electricity lines,” she added. Each household was ordered to send one person for “volunteer” work—cleaning the school, monastery, and roads ahead of repairs to a damaged power line. But villagers received no help to clear their own yards or rebuild their homes. Two weeks after returning, Mya Thidar still couldn’t fix her bullet-riddled roof. She boarded up the missing windows and doors with scraps of plywood from a looted house nearby. With landmines scattered around the abandoned military base next to her home, she can’t farm safely, but says her village is still better off than many she passed on her way back. “So far, I’ve found four landmines in my yard,” she said. “I think there are more.” “And I have no choice but to wait for the dry season to burn my backyard to clear all those explosive devices. Because, no one dares to enter and clear it.” For now, she has no choice but to live beneath a roof scarred by war, pocked with bullet holes and shrapnel marks. She worries constantly about her two daughters, who are still struggling to find work to help the family get by. “My daughter said she wouldn’t go to school this year to help me with the work,” she said. “I could not refuse her because I cannot afford to send her to school under current circumstances.” With the harvest over, Mya Thidar and her daughters have few ways to earn a living, struggling to rebuild with ongoing insecurity. She hopes to save enough next year to send her youngest back to school, now with barely a third of the students it once had.Nawnghkio, a key trade town linking central Myanmar and China, has been a battleground for more than a year. The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) held it until July, when the junta’s counteroffensive retook the area, driving many residents to flee once again as fighting and airstrikes spread across northern Shan State. This photo taken on November 9, 2024 shows members of Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) receiving military equipment at a graduation ceremony after getting special combat training for three months in a secret jungle near Namhkam, Myanmar's northern Shan State. When the fighting subsided, residents of the three towns along the major trade route in northern Shan State began returning to their homes. Yet uncertainty and a lingering sense of danger continued to overshadow their lives. Thousands have returned to Hsipaw in northern Shan State since the junta has returned. At least half of the residents stayed behind during the fighting, and remained in the urban areas. Residents told Myanmar Now that they have chosen to stay because the clashes were largely confined to areas near junta bases on the outskirts, leaving the city center largely untouched.The northern edge of the town, including Zat Su Ward, Kyaung Su village, and Ywar Thit village, bore the full brunt of shelling from both sides. These neighborhoods were also looted during lulls in the fighting. ‘No hope for business’ This photo taken on April 9, 2025 shows a vendor waiting for customer at a street market in Lashio in Myanmar's northern Shan State. (Photo: AFP) The war has upended the livelihoods of town residents. Among them is Aung Sai, a hotel owner from Hsipaw, who went from running a hotel to working as a driver, struggling to make ends meet as the war pushes through its fourth year. He travels back and forth between Mandalay and Hsipaw, unable to leave his hotel unattended for long. Aung Sai spent months in Hsipaw under TNLA control, losing friends in relentless junta airstrikes before finally fleeing. He hopes to return one day, but for now, he says, the only comfort is being safe from the bombs—even as his hotel business faces collapse. “Our hotel wasn’t damaged during the fighting,” he said. “We even kept it open when the clashes stopped last year, but there were no guests,” referencing the fleeting moment of peace under TNLA control. “There is no hope for business even if I reopen it this time. The situation is still unstable, and there are no travelers or guests,” he added, highlighting how the junta has returned. Several offices and hotels, including Kumudra Hill Hotel and Hotel Hsipaw, were damaged during the fighting and arson attacks, Hsipaw residents said. Similarly, in Kyaukme, at least two hotels were damaged by junta airstrikes. A man in Kyaukme, Shan State, who recently reopened a local hardware shop, said business is far from what it used to be, as only around half of the town’s residents have returned. “Not every school has reopened, and some shops only open until 2 or 3 pm,” he said. “There are still few people in town and most avoid going out at night.” Despite these myriad difficulties, residents who have returned to Kyaukme are cautiously resuming their normal activities, reopening small shops and trying to rebuild a sense of normalcy to the war-torn town. A building is seen set ablaze in Kyaukme, not long after the junta recaptured the northern Shan State town in September, 2025. (Photo: Supplied) “Apart from the electricity outage, things are generally fine,” the shopkeeper said. “I hope there will be no more fighting in the future.” Although clashes between the TNLA and junta forces have ceased, warplanes have stopped bombing, for now, residents say they are fearful about living under the well-established oppression of the military regime.Locals say that the junta has begun seizing properties and businesses in Hsipaw and Kyaukme, accusing owners of aiding the TNLA after retaking the towns. Today, they are fearful, afraid of being caught in the crossfire of a conflict that has already taken far too many lives.“We’re helpless and unprotected. We could only watch as thieves looted our homes. We knew who set the fires,” said a man from Hsipaw, referencing arson incidents as the TNLA pulled out of the town. “But we stayed silent to avoid risking our lives.”

‘I don’t feel safe’: Villagers in northern Shan struggle to rebuild

After months displaced, civilians returning to Nawnghkio, Hsipaw, and Kyaukme find their homes looted, their land mined, and their livelihoods destroyed

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