Nearly a thousand villagers living in Kyaukme since they were displaced by the long-running conflict between several armed ethnic groups in Burma’s northern Shan State have no food or other essential rations, or enough firewood to cook meals or keep warm. Because of ongoing tensions near their homes, no one can return to their villages.

“There are difficulties in almost all displaced camps. Both those who arrived a long time ago and the new arrivals need rice, curry and cooking oil,” Loung Liang Han, chair of the Shan Literature and Culture Association told SHAN.

The fighting between the Restoration Council of Shan State and members of the Northern Alliance, the Shan State Progress Party and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, has turned the lives of villagers in Kyaukme Township and neighbouring Hsipaw Township upside down.

Hsipaw villagers who sought refuge in a pagoda in Baw Kyo have been able to return to their homes, but others who fled to the town of Kyaukme still cannot.

”Sometimes we hear heavy weapons being fired, so we’re afraid to return to our village,” an elderly woman told SHAN. She said they’ve no money and have therefore sought shelter at the Kywel Kon Buddhist monastery in the town.

Recently, the violence has stopped, but with armed groups still in the area, it’s probably just a temporary lull in the intermittent clashes in the township.

IDPs who cannot stay with relatives or afford a room are sleeping in the Dhamma Hall in ward 8, in the Nam Sitlin, Ner Hkaw and Kywel Kon Buddhist monasteries, as well as in the Shan Literature and Culture Association and in camps set up in Mong Ting village tract and Mong Ngor town.

According to a UN Humanitarian Needs Overview by OCHA, almost half of Burma’s population will be driven to poverty in 2022, reversing improvements made since 2005.

Since the coup a year ago, over 300,000 people have been displaced in Burma caused mainly by regime offensives while 340,000 were already displaced before the military overthrew the democratic government.