The Chin State government accused the Arakan Army (AA) of robbing rice destined for civilians in food-strapped Paletwa township but Chairperson of the Paletwa Food Ration told Khonumthung Media Group they tried to buy the rice at regular rates. The government claimed the AA intercepted a vehicle carrying 100 rice bags to the township on March 29 and stole all it. But Sein Tun Hla, chairperson of the Paletwa Food Ration Transportation Committee, said the armed group tried to buy the rice at regular rates and the AA soldiers only asked for 20 bags. “They requested assistance from us…That’s why…
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Nearly 7,000 ethnic Chin people living in Rakhine State have had to flee fighting between the Burma Army and Arakan Army (AA) and are in need of emergency assistance, civil society organizations (CSOs) said. The Burma Army and the AA have clashed in Rakhine State since the end of 2018, leading to the displacement of some 150,000 people in the state. “Chin ethnic people are a minority in Rakhine State. Media outlets cannot cover their situation. Another thing is that humanitarian assistance hasn’t reached these people,” Salai Tun Hla Kyaw, the chairperson of the Chin University Students in Rakhine State…
Burma News International (BNI) asked the government to stop blocking Rakhine and Karen media outlets from mobile phone users. “This is a crucial time for the news media to distribute accurate and timely information to the people,” said Nan Paw Gay, the chairperson of the BNI policy committee, in a press statement. For the democratic process to move forward and develop a “sustainable peace process” it’s crucial not to prevent freedom of expression. During the Covid-19 pandemic the people of Burma must have access to vital information about the current crisis, Nan Paw Gay said. While countries around the world…
As doctors in the public hospital in Paletwa, Chin State monitor returnees from abroad for signs of the coronavirus, greater concerns loom about the ability to prevent and treat the virus in a township cut off from the rest of the country. Because of intensified fighting between the Burma Army and the Arakan Army, both roads and river routes into the southern Chin State town of Paletwa have been blocked. The government has also shut off the internet to the region for months, limiting locals’ awareness of the COVID-19 pandemic and how to protect themselves from it. Some 22 people…
Anyone returning to Kalay, located in Burma’s Sagaing region, from a foreign country is being placed in a 15-day quarantine to prevent the spread of Covid-19 pandemic that has already affected at least 177 countries. Currently, there are 15 people (10 males, 5 females) quarantined at the Sitagu eye hospital after health officials implemented the new directive. They can’t leave the facility, have family and friends visit them or contact with any others during their stay. If an individual violates their quarantine, legal action will be taken under the 1995 anti contagious disease law. In Sagaing region, restaurants, bars and…
In an effort to halt the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian government has imposed a 24-day lockdown on the whole of the country since March 24, leaving Chin migrants and refugees without jobs or food. Salai Cung Dawt, who works with the Chin Human Rights Organization, said that members of the Chin community in India,who typically work in factories and as day and night laborers, arenow struggling for their survival under the new restrictions, which have left them unemployed. “They cannot afford to pay their rent on their homes or pay for their daily food,” he said. “The…
Local authorities in Kalay, Sagaing Region say that they will not put the town on lockdown, following a government announcement that the first documented coronavirus cases have been found in Tedim, Chin State, and Yangon, respectively. After denying that the COVID-19 virus had any presence in the country, despite a rising number of cases among neighboring countries, Burmese authorities said on Monday evening that they had identified two cases of the coronavirus in men that had recently traveled abroad. Kalay borders Chin State, and is connected to Tedim by road. An ethnic Chin man who had returned to Tedim after…
The Arakan Army (AA) took 15 workers from a Paletwa river port construction site in southern Chin State into their custody on Sunday before releasing them one day later. The AA alleged that the Burma Army had used the site as a point from which to attack them the day before. The workers included seven local laborers and eight Indian nationals working on the India-backed Kaladan Multi-modal Transport Project. The initiative involves the construction of a network of roads, ports, and formalization of travel on waterways to connect Sittwe in Rakhine State with the Indian city of Kolkata. “Our troops…
Public festivals and other events will be barred from taking place in Kalay, Sagaing Region until the end of April in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19, a statement from the township’s General Administration Department (GAD) has announced. Kalay Township GAD officer Nyi Nyi said that the order includes trainings, workshops, and the annual water festival, Thingyan. “The President’s Office already released a statement about the closure of all festive activities. We released a local order,” the officer told Khonumthung News of the statement put out on March 17. “We called up all village headmen and told them…
The Chin National Front (CNF) has called on both the Burma Army and Arakan Army (AA) to immediately stop fighting on Chin national land. The call came during the CNF’s seventh conference held at the organization’s Victoria headquarters from March 16-19. A statement released by the group said that the Arakanese troops were not to be based in Chin territory, in accordance with the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), to which the CNF is a signatory. “In the NCA agreement with the government, there must only be the Burma Army and the Chin National Army on Chin land,” CNF general secretary…