About 30,000 were forced to flee their homes and businesses on 16 June after the regime launched a special operation in Mobye, hoping to finally capture the town in southern Shan State from resistance forces fighting to overthrow the military dictatorship.
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A man volunteering for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) management committee requesting anonymity, said over 3,000 IDPs had sought refuge in the western town of Pekon. The rest have fled to Loikaw and Taunggyi towns and others areas in Shan and Karenni states.
“They were in a hurry to leave Mobye and could not take food with them when they fled,” he said, explaining that they are trying to find basic food and tarpaulins to protect them from the rain.
Also displaced by fighting, the man said everyone just wanted to get home. But his house has been destroyed by Burma army’s shelling and he has nowhere to return to. “We are worried about our future. We do not know when this war will end.”
The IDPs are suffering trauma after constant fighting, he explained. They live on irregular donations from individuals and groups inside the country and the Burmese diaspora and when that stops they will starve.
The junta wants to seize the Moebye-Loikaw road, which would allow it to deprive the resistance and the many displaced camps under its control in Shan and Karenni states of food and other vital supplies.
