Internally Displaced People (IDPs) have called for the immediate removal of an unexploded artillery shell found near the Wartaung IDP camp in Kyauktaw Township in Arakan State.
The unexploded artillery shell was found embedded on the hill about five furlongs west of the Wartaung IDP camp last July when a IDP woman was digging Chinese Yam.
U Naing Win Tun, an in-charge of Wartaung IDP camp said: “The unexploded artillery shell is partly in the soil. No one dares to come close. The people are warned not to go there.”
The IDPs said they have repeatedly requested officials of the United League of Arakan (ULA) to remove it as soon as possible as it can explode when a person touches it. However, no one has come to remove it for two months.
There are more than 60 households in Wartaung IDP camp where more than 380 IDPs from Khamaung, Laykwee, Taewa and Kinpe villages in Kyauktaw and Ponnagyun Townships are taking shelter, according to in-charges of IDP camps.
Residents said that there was fierce fighting between the Arakan Army (AA) and the military council between 2018 and 2020, where the unexploded artillery shell was found.
From November 2018 to October 2021, 49 local people were killed and more than 70 were injured due to the explosion of landmines and remnants of war in Arakan State, according to the Rakhine Ethnic Congress. (REC).
Sent by Narinjara