With winter approaching, internally displaced persons (IDPs) in southern Chin State’s Paletwa Township, need warm clothing and blankets by the end of this month, a parliamentarian for the area said.
Paletwa MP Salai Myo Hteik said there are more than 10,000 IDPs from 2,000 families in the towns of Paletwa and Sami who are in need.
“It’s really cold there in the winter,” Paletwa MP Salai Myo Hteik told Khonumthung News. “IDPs could not carry their belongings when they fled clashes… They mainly need blankets and warm clothes.”
He said that it is crucial to deliver donations of clothing and blankets “before the end of November.”
Municipal minister Soe Htet, a spokesperson for the Chin State government, said that the administration had received some donations of winter clothing and blankets for the IDPs and would send them to Paletwa in the coming days.
It was not clear to what extent this round of donations would meet the IDPs’ growing needs.
Khonumthung News first reported the IDPs’ need for winter clothing on November 7—the day before Burma’s general election. At that time, the government did not have an immediate plan to send donations to the IDPs; spokesperson Soe Htet said that the state administration was “busy with election matters.”
A Paletwa IDP told Khonumthung News that “nobody” had come to provide them with warm clothes.
There are more than 4,800 IDPs in staying in Paletwa town, 3,300 in the town of Sami, more than 500 in Meezar village, and more than 200 in Seint Sin village. They were displaced by clashes between the Burma Army and the Arakan Army in Paletwa Township.