Nearly 40,000 IDPs in eastern Bago Region require emergency assistance

By DMG 04 Jul 2022

DMG Newsroom
4 July 2022, Kyaukkyi, Bago Region

Tens of thousands of locals displaced by fighting between the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Myanmar military in Bago Region’s Kyaukkyi and Mone townships are in urgent need of food and medicine, according to locals.

Nearly 40,000 locals have been displaced by Myanmar military artillery and airstrikes after a coalition of Karen armed groups attacked five military outposts in Kyaukkyi and Mone townships on July 2 and 3, according to a member of a Karen relief group.

“Almost 40,000 displaced people are in urgent need of food, shelter and medicine. The displaced people are hiding in the forests in Pyu and Kyauktaga townships,” said an official from another local relief group.

A coalition led by Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Brigade 3 simultaneously attacked and occupied five military outposts, the KNU said in a statement on July 3. The KNLA is the KNU’s armed wing.

Following the KNLA’s occupation of the five military outposts, four internally displaced people (IDPs) were killed and another was injured in the shelling and airstrikes by the Myanmar military, according to a source close to KNLA Brigade 3.

“The Myanmar military intentionally fired artillery shells and conducted airstrikes on local people fleeing the fighting. Four displaced people were killed and an IDP sustained shrapnel to his thigh,” the KNLA source explained.

The military council has not yet commented on the reported IDP casualties.

Military tensions are said to be rising as the Myanmar military sends reinforcements to the area and is expected to attempt to retake the military outposts occupied by the KNLA.