Among the thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) affected by fighting between rival ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) in Kyaukme Township, about 80 people from 20 families in Mong Ngor have not received any humanitarian assistance because they were not included in the population data collected for IDPs in the sub township.

In July, many villagers in Tawt San village tract have been displaced by fighting. According to Sai Liang Han, who is the chair of Shan Literature and Culture Organization for Kyaukme Township, there are about 1,000 staying at Mong Ngor and the surrounding villages.

He said the 80 IDPs who need help recently arrived at Mang Huay village, near the town of Mong Ngor. Some of them are sick, including the abbot from the monastery in their village Hein Woe. They need food and blankets.

In Mong Ngor town, there are 100 villagers sleeping in the hallway of the Shan Literature and Culture Organisation office, where there’s only two toilets and no electricity. Sai Liang Han told SHAN they are building a third toilet for them.

According to a resident, there about 500 IDPs who are still left in the town. “Some moved to Kyaukme town while others relocated to different villages. I don’t think that they will be returning to their homes anytime soon because we can still hear the sounds of gunfire,” she explained.

Volunteers told SHAN everyone is anxious after two people in Mong Ngor town tested positive for COVID-19. Numerous transmissions have also been detected in Kyaukme town. Many fear an outbreak in the crowded IDP camps, where social distancing is impossible.

Sai Liang Han told SHAN a 56-year-old man who arrived in Mong Ngor town was injured after accidentally stepped on a concealed landmine a week earlier in his village Pang Tawng, located in Tawt San village tract. On July 19, the man was sent to the hospital in Kyaukme town to have shrapnel from the explosion removed from his leg.