Cyclone-damaged shelters at Hindu IDP camp in Maungdaw yet to be repaired

By Admin 25 Sep 2023

DMG Newsroom
25 September 2023, Maungdaw

Shelters at a camp for Hindu internally displaced people (IDPs) in Myoma Ashae Ward in Maungdaw, Arakan State, have not yet been repaired more than four months after they were damaged by Cyclone Mocha, according to IDPs there.

The IDPs are facing accommodation difficulties as they live in makeshift tents made of tarpaulin sheets, said U Hawbiram, manager of the displacement.

“We are facing various hardships,” he said.

Some 1.5 million people were affected and over 24,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed by Cyclone Mocha in mid-May, according to the Arakan State military council.

U Hawbiram said that a list of the damages to the shelters in the Hindu IDP camp was collected by INGOs and NGOs and the list was submitted to the township and ward administrators, but nothing has been done yet.

Four latrines in the displacement camp were also damaged by the storm and have not yet been repaired.

“It is not safe if it rains. The makeshift tent is made of tarpaulin sheets, so if the sun is hot, it will be very hot and if it rains, it will be wet. We are struggling to make ends meet,” said Daw Harzolain, a Hindu IDP woman.

The military regime provided the IDPs at the camp with K35,000 each and about three pyi of rice following the storm, but no other material assistance was provided.

A list of damages to the shelters in the camp was submitted to the township administrator, but nothing has been done yet, confirmed U Nyo Tun, an administrator of Myoma Ashae Ward.

“Their shelters were completely destroyed by the storm. They live in makeshift tents now, it’s really pitiful. They don’t have jobs,” he said.

DMG phoned Maungdaw Township administrator U Kan Tun Aung regarding the repair of shelters at the camp, but he could not be reached.

The displacement camp is home to 182 Hindu IDPs from 41 households. Hindu IDPs from Khamaungseik, Kyeinchaung, Yebawkya, Ngakhuya  and Thittaw Narkhasone villages in Maungdaw Township and Kyaukpandu Village in Rathedaung Township were displaced by the the military’s violent crackdown and expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Muslims from northern Arakan State in 2017.