About 800 people displaced (IDPs) from Panglong (ပၢင်လွင်း) Township, Shan State who have been sheltering in Nyaungshwe Township, Shan State for over two months are in urgent need of shelters, blankets, and warm clothes.

Since October the IDPs have been forced to flee fighting in Panglong Township between Karenni resistance forces and the junta aided by its ally the Pa-O National Organisation (PNO).

Currently the approximately 800 IDPs are sheltering in the Nyaungshwe Township villages of Sanyaekyi, Hehsat, and Narmun. They are in urgent need of shelters, blankets, and warm clothes, according to one of the IDPs.

He said to SHAN: “We have to live in tents in such a cold place, so we urgently need blankets and more tents. We’ve been enduring the cold with the few resources we have. Some brave people temporarily returned to their homes to bring back necessary items. The weather was so cold that we had to light fires in our tents, but we had to put them out before sleeping due to the risk of fire.”

He added that in the more than two months during which they had been sheltering in Nyaungshwe Township no organisation had come to offer them any help. A lack of work in Nyaungshwe Township had also made their lives even harder.

The IDP said: “Jobs are very scarce here. Some people have gone back [temporarily] to their homes to bring back stockpiled rice, allowing them to manage to eke out a meagre living on the resources they have. While some are slightly more at ease [with their situation], others remain deeply stressed due to the ongoing need for food.”

In the third week of November, junta-appointed township administrators ordered IDPS sheltering in Nyaungshwe Township monasteries to return to their homes by March 2025.