More than 25,000 people have been forced to flee their homes due to recent intense fighting in northern Shan State, and many of them are in dire need of assistance, according to local aid workers.
So far, at least 13,000 displaced locals have taken shelter in towns around the conflict zone, while a similar number is believed to have fled to the Wa Self-Administered Division, which is controlled by Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic armed group, the United Wa State Army (UWSA).
Local relief groups contacted by Myanmar Now estimated that there are currently more than 6,500 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Lashio, northern Shan State’s largest city, while Hsenwi, a town about 50km to the northeast, has another 5,000.
Nawnghkio and Mongton, which are both south of Lashio, have also received a total of around 1,000 IDPs, while Kutkai and Mongko, north of Lashio, have around 500 each, the groups said.
There have also been reports of many others stranded in forested areas and unable to reach towns, they added, suggesting that the number in need of aid is expected to grow.
Around half of the IDPs in Lashio are sheltering at the city’s Mansu Shan Buddhist Monastery, where the monk in charge of relief efforts noted that health issues were a major concern.
“There are many sick people here,” he said.
The crisis began on the morning of October 27, when around 10,000 residents of Chin Shwe Haw, a town on Shan State’s border with China, fled to UWSA territory following the start of an offensive launched by an alliance of anti-regime armed groups.
The UWSA, which is not part of the alliance, said that it has made efforts to provide for those who fled to the Wa-controlled town of Namtit to escape the fighting.
“We have done our best to help them. Some have gone back home,” said Nyi Rang, the UWSA’s Lashio-based liaison officer.
In Hsenwi, a strategically important town about 100km west of Chin Shwe Haw, residents said that in addition to having to accommodate some 5,000 IDPs, residents have lost phone service since lines were cut following attacks on nearby junta outposts.
On Wednesday the groups involved in Operation 1027—the major offensive led by the Brotherhood Alliance, consisting of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, and the Arakan Army—said they were in “complete control” of both Chin Shwe Haw and Hsenwi, which sits on the road to the China border.
Lashio, which has also come under attack, is home to the junta’s Northeastern Regional Military Command headquarters. Army convoys from the city have to pass through Hsenwi to reach the heavily contested Sino-Myanmar border areas.
According to a statement released on Monday by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the fighting in northern Shan State has killed seven civilians, including two children, and injured nine others.
