The homes of residents forced to flee fighting are being looted in Sankar Village, in Kachin State’s Waingmaw Township.
The displaced villagers are sheltering in the nearby village of Nawngching, also in Waingmaw Township. Recently, they briefly returned to their houses to check on them only to discover that many had been burgled and looted.
A villager who has been displaced from Sankar Village said: “A few villagers who stayed behind to guard the homes tried to stop the looters from ransacking the deserted houses. But the looters, moving in groups, told them to stay out of it — said it wasn’t their business. Most of the homes that got burgled were already emptied out [of possessions]. Honestly, if there was nothing left to take, I think they’d even go as far as ripping off the metal roofs.
The looters even stripped electrical wiring from the empty houses and sold it openly in the village to buyers of stolen goods.
Sankar Village is a buffer zone between Kachin Independence Army (KIA) soldiers holding the northeast outskirts of the village and junta soldiers holding the western and southern outskirts of the village. Villagers cannot return and rebuild whilst the village separates the two forces.
Sankar Village lies south of the Ayeyarwady River near Waingmaw Town. Villagers fled the village after fighting started there on 10 May 2024. and took shelter in the villages of Laban and Nawngching north of the Ayeyarwady River.
Currently, there are 893 displaced people from Sankar Village sheltering in Nawngching Village. They are in urgent need of food, medicine and aid.
