Civilians displaced by conflict in southern Chin State, who haven’t received any food rations since the military coup happened three weeks ago, are sleeping on the ground after their huts collapsed.
“We want to build new shelters because we can’t return to our village. If the rain comes we have nowhere to hide,” said a resident from an internally displaced persons (IDPs) camp in Sami town.
“At this time, there aren’t any donors or organizations coming to help us. We don’t have a regular income living in the IDP camp so it’s really difficult.”
One-hundred and sixty homes collapsed after insects chewed through the bamboo supports holding them up.
“Currently, there’s nothing we can do about it because we can’t communicate with local or international donors. We’re lucky it’s not the rainy season,” said Pyi Su, who helps the IDPs.
He said they don’t have the money to buy the wood to repair the huts, which was provided by the government of Chin State and support from private donors.
Ma Cin Sheng Hwi, in charge of People’s Hope, said they were trying to build new huts for the IDPs before the rainy season starts. “Some of them are already really old…The problem is we can’t do it right now because we’re trying to arrange food rations for them.” She heard another organization will come to build them.
IDPs living in Sami and in the nearby town of Paletwa have been on their own since the Tatmadaw took over the country on February 1. Fortunately, the World Food Program already provided food rations for the month of February.
In Sami, there are five camps where 3,388 from 818 families live. All of them were forced from their villages because of the conflict between the Arakan Army and Burma Army.