Over 1,000 displaced civilians in central Shan State’s Mong Hsu Township still in need of relief after the resolution agreement between the Burma Army and the Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA) had been reached.

According to Nang Jing, a local relief worker in Mong Hsu Township, IDPs were told to return homes after the head of the Eastern Central Command visited the camp on January 2. Many of them decided to stay at the camp due to security concerns.

“There are over 1,000 villagers still staying at Hai Pa camp,” said Nang Jing. “They still need food and housing supplies.”

“But now, there is very little aid for them,” she added.

Burma Army launched heavy offensives in early October last year against the Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA), an ethnic armed group that refused to sign the nationwide ceasefire agreement. Fighting caused more than 10,000 civilians from Mong Hsu, Mong Nong and Kesi Townshipsin in Central Shan State to flee their homes.

“We were asked to go back home but we are afraid of landmine so we don’t want to go,” said a displaced villager who is staying at Hai Pa camp. “Burma soldiers are still stationed in our village.”

“We cannot provide them the houses but we can give them some building materials so that they can build their houses,” said Sai Hseng Murng, the secretary of local aid group Namkhong Organization.

He said that the IDPs, who stayed in the camp, did not have space to grow their crop. He went on to say the group would try to provide them rice until June this year.

Aid is being sent to northern Shan State’s Kyaukme Township to help over 5,000 displaced people who just fled their homes due to the renewed clashes between the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA).

BY SAI AW / Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN)