After returning to Maing Lone Ward in Loikaw, Karenni (Kayah) State, nearly 500 residents have been forced to flee their homes for the third time and are in need of assistance, according to local sources.
Residents of the ward have been displaced again since the first week of June, an aid worker said.
A youth helping the IDPs said, “Some people didn’t dare to stay longer and have fled. The army is conducting raids as usual. In fact, the whole village had to flee”
The residents of Maing Lone Ward in Loikaw were first displaced after the start of “Operation 1111” on 11 November last year. They then returned home in the last week of May and had to flee again in early June.
A displaced person from the ward said: “Only a few people stay. These people face threats from the junta troops from time to time. And the junta troops are present in most of the streets near their positions near the ward. They lay mines or set up ambush patrols in the streets that they can’t cover.”
This is the third time that civilians have been displaced from Maing Lone Ward in the first week of June, following once in November 2023 and once in June 2022.
Aid organizations report that these IDPs are in need of food and shelter as well as cash. Some have become homeless, while many elderly people, children, pregnant women, nursing mothers, the disabled and the chronically ill are appealing for urgent emergency assistance.
“They have fled to many different places. Some have fled to Pinlaung and Aungban in southern Shan State. Some first fled to Hsi Hseng and then had to flee again because of the fighting there. Some also fled to Demoso. It was the army that told the residents to flee. The army camps there gave hints to the locals, even if they didn’t ask them directly,” explained an aid worker.
Recently, junta troops have taken up positions at Shwe Let War Monastery in Maing Lone Ward, Government Technological College, on the west side of South Market and on Yadana Thiri Hill in Loikaw. The junta troops are engaged in fierce fighting with the Karenni resistance forces, according to frontline sources.
Those who returned to Loikaw in late May live in wards such as Min Su, Nam Baw Wan, Aye Ka 500, Set Hmu Zone, Shan Paing, Daw Noe Ku, Chi Kei, Daw Ta Ma, Law Da Ma, Shwe Taung, Zay Paing, Min Ga Lar and Naung Yar, returnees said.
However, resistance forces have warned that it is still not safe to return as landmines have not been completely cleared and fighting and military tensions continue in some wards of the city, leaving the risk of air strikes and heavy artillery fire at any time.
Sent by NMG.