In Mandalay Region’s Madaya Township, just north of Myanmar’s second-largest city, fierce clashes between regime and resistance forces have forced thousands of local villagers to flee their homes.
According to figures compiled by the anti-junta Madaya Township People’s Administration Organisation, there are 38 camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) throughout the township, housing around 5,650 people from nearly 1,700 households.
Most of these displaced civilians are from around 30 villages along the eastern bank of the Ayeyarwady River. Many have scattered in groups across the river’s islands, far from the battle zones and the junta’s army camps.
To survive, they have had to rely mostly on their own efforts, earning a living by fishing or making thatch to cover the simple bamboo huts that house many people in this region, including the IDPs themselves.
But even as they struggle to make. . .
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