Rural Arakan State residents warned about potential shifting of landmines, ERWs

By Admin 23 Jun 2023

DMG Newsroom
23 June 2023, Sittwe

Rural residents of Arakan State must be careful as landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERWs) may have shifted locations due to Cyclone Mocha, organisations that work on landmine awareness have warned.

“Cyclone Mocha caused landslides in some areas. Explosive materials can be moved by a current. Some explosive materials may also be released on the ground, so rural residents need to avoid touching them,” said an official from Kyauktaw Township’s Myanmar Red Cross Society (MRCS).

Landmine and ERW risk awareness is being conducted in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and MRCS, but there is still a need in some areas, he said.

Villagers in areas where past fighting took place said they were worried about the danger of landmines and ERWs following the cyclonic storm, which made landfall over Arakan State on May 14.

“We are worried about our safety. A local man has died in two separate landmine blasts in my village. Another man had his leg amputated below the knee due to a landmine blast,” said U Kyaw Myint, the administrator of Oo Sun Taung Village in Kyauktaw Township.

There is an urgent need for awareness training by governmental departments, and local and foreign organisations, to reduce landmine-related risks for rural people.

“It is necessary to provide rural people with landmine risk education. There is nothing here to educate about the dangers of landmines and ERWs,” said U Maung Gaung, a local man from Boketaw Village in Ponnagyun Township.

According to DMG research, 64 people died and 162 others were injured in explosions of landmines, ERWs and unexploded ordnance (UXO) last year in Arakan State and neighbouring Chin State’s Paletwa Township.

Since November 26 — when the Arakan Army and Myanmar military reached an informal ceasefire — six people have been killed and 14 others were injured in landmine explosions in Arakan State, according to a DMG tally.