As Burma’s Ministry of Education announced its high school matriculation exam results last week, Chin State had the lowest passing rate in the country. Some 10,771 students took the exam in Chin State during the 2018-2019 academic year and only 2,110 passed, or 19.6 percent of students. Nearly 80 percent of those who took the test—which relies largely on rote learning—failed. More than 250 students received distinctions in at least one subject, and in as many as five subjects. “Many students in other states and regions are living in boarding schools with private teachers, so students get full support from…
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More than 100 schools in southern Chin State’s Paletwa Township are facing difficulties beginning a new academic year because they have no teachers, a government spokesperson said. According to U Soe Htet, the state’s municipal minister, there are 118 schools that don’t have teachers for the 2019-2020 school year, and 94 schools that have only one teacher, meaning that a total of 212 schools are struggling with this shortage. “Paletwa Township has regional instability. Therefore, school teachers don’t want to live here,” he said, referring to the multiple clashes between the Burma Army and the Arakan Army this year in…
One in three pregnant women in Chin State are suffering from anemia, according to a report from the Ministry of Health and Sport. U Aung Myat Kyaw, who is chairman of SUN CSA Myanmar (Scaling Up Nutrition Civil Society Alliance), said that the issue is due to a lack of protein and iron in women’s diets during pregnancy. “Some people don’t eat protein-rich foods because of their customs and traditions,” U Aung Myat Kyaw told Khonumthung News. “Some people understand that they need to eat these foods but they can not afford to buy them. Sometimes they are not available…
Khonumthung News spoke with spokesperson for the Arakan Army (AA) Khaing Thukha following allegations by Chin civil society that the armed group had forced villagers to leave their community. The Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) reported on June 3 that AA forces had abducted 52 Chin people from King-Tlin village in Paletwa Township, southern Chin State, earlier this year. An escaped villager was quoted by CHRO as saying that King-Tlin residents were forced to gather at a church by AA troops, who then told them that the Burma Army would soon launch an airstrike on the area and should leave.…
Soldiers from the Arakan Army (AA) forcibly seized more than 150 bags of rice from a boat carrying goods and passengers on the Kaladan River in southern Chin State’s Paletwa Township on Monday. The incident occurred in Paletwa’s Tarun-ai village tract as the boat was approaching the village of Kyaelay. According to witnesses, the AA troops fired their guns several times to get the boat to stop so they could take the rice and other supplies. The motorboat was carrying rice and other foodstuffs, as well as 19 passengers, including four schoolteachers and three Christian pastors. “They tried to stop…
The Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) is calling on the Arakan Army (AA) to release 52 Chin civilians, including 17 children, who have been held captive by the group for the past four months. According to the CHRO, AA forces entered the village of King-Talin in southern Chin State’s Paletwa Township on February 2 and forced its inhabitants to gather in the local church. They then ordered the villagers to go with them to the Bangladeshi border and beat the village headman when they resisted. All but two of the 54 villagers who were abducted at the time are still…
Civil engineering students from Kalay Technical University conducted a series of tests in and around Chin State’s Rih Lake on Thursday in an effort to assess the lake’s water quality and environmental conditions. The students’ research focused on assessing the water’s turbidity/transparency, electrical conductivity, pH balance and alkalinity, as well as its nitrite, phosphate, chlorine and iron levels. They also conducted a miniSASS test, which determines the health of a body of water based on which small organisms are present. “They came to study the water quality of the lake as a field trip to support their studies,” U Lalpeklawma,…
Most of the roughly 3,000 Chin refugees living in the Indian capital New Delhi have been issued new identification cards by the UN refugee agency UNHCR. “More than 2,800 Chin refugees have received the new card. This includes people who had the old card and others who have completed the UN’s notification interview,” Salai Cung Dawt, head of the Chin Human Rights Organization, told Khonumthung News. According to Salai Cung Dawt, UNHCR officials will decide on a case-by-case basis whether to issue new cards to those who do not yet have them. “The UNHCR is still drafting its policy for…
More than 20,000 people in Sagaing Region’s Kalay Township are facing a severe water shortage as local wells remain dry after more than a month of drought conditions, according to members of the township’s management committee. Eight remote villages in the township and four wards in Kalay town have been hit the hardest, affecting a total of 21,011 people in 4,417 households since the water shortage began late last month, official figures showed. “Township authorities have taken the lead in distributing water to these communities since April 18,” Nyi Nyi, the chairman of the Kalay Township Management Committee, told Khonumthung…
Border trade between the town of Rihkhawdar in Chin State and Aizawl in India’s Mizoram State has returned to normal after a trading association in Mizoram agreed last Friday to lift its blockade of goods from Burma. The Importer and Exporter Code Holder (IEC) Association of Mizoram had blocked imports through Burma’s No. 2 Border Trading Camp near Rihkhawdar into Zokhawthar, in Mizoram’s Champai District since May 15. Imported materials and local products from Burma are typically transported through this route to Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram State, through Zokhawthar and Champhai. These goods are then sent onwards to other…