IDPs in Arakan State face accommodation woes due to untimely rains

By Admin 21 Mar 2024

DMG Newsroom
21 March 2024, Sittwe

Internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State are reportedly facing difficulties in accommodation and food due to untimely rains.

IDPs told DMG that they face difficulties in cooking and sleeping because of the rains triggered by strong winds on Thursday night.

“We live in makeshift tents beside a motor road. The makeshift tents were thrown away in strong winds because they were not secure. We had no place to sleep when it rained yesterday,” said an IDP man in Ponnagyun Township.

According to a statement from the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology on March 21, the Andaman Sea in the south and the Bay of Bengal in the south will be cloudy, and it is expected to rain in Magway, Mandalay, Yangon and Ayeyarwaddy Regions and Shan, Kayah and Arakan States in the next 1-2 days.

Thousands of IDPs in Ponnagyun, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, Sittwe, Pauktaw, Minbya, Buthidaung, Maungdaw, Rathedaung and Ramree townships are facing accommodation difficulties.

“We faced various hardships due to untimely rains, which forced us to move to safer locations. We are in trouble due to lack of proper accommodation,” said an IDP woman in Pauktaw Township.

At least 300,000 people in Arakan State and neighbouring Chin State’s Paletwa Township were displaced by the latest fighting between the military and the Arakan Army, and the IDPs are in need of food, shelter and medicine.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) has announced that the need for humanitarian aid for IDPs in Arakan State, who have fled their homes due to the military conflict, has never been more dire.