People displaced (IDPs) from areas of Pinlaung Township are suffering with the arrival of heavy monsoon rains.
Fighting started near Hsawngpyaung Village in Pinlaung Township, about 100 miles away from the capital Naypyidaw, on 17 May 2025. It was triggered by a surprise early-morning raid that day by the junta and members of the junta-aligned Pa-O National Organisation (PNO) on fighters from a Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF)-led coalition stationed in the foothills west of Hsawngpyaung Village.
It caused villagers from about 1,000 households in the surrounding villages to panic and flee their homes. The fighting also damaged 285 buildings including homes, schools, and hospitals, according to the Pa'O Youth Organisation (PYO).
Most of the displaced villagers sought refuge in Pinlaung Town and in the villages of Pinkhun, Hsawnghkar, and Nanhtar, south of Pinlaung Town.
An IDP from Pinlaung Township said in a voice full of sorrow: “My house was burned down. All the rice, oil, and salt I had saved were stolen by looters.”
When the fighting broke out many villagers fled their homes with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and were unable to bring along essentials such as medicine, food, bedding, and other necessities.
An aid worker assisting the Pinlaung Township IDPs said to Shan Herald: “Right now, what war-displaced people need most are shelters and bedding, and blankets too. They also need basic staples like rice, oil, salt, and medicine.”
Unfortunately, very few donors have come forward to assist the IDPs in Pinlaung Township and they have instead been forced to rely on each other for support. Both the IDPs and the aid workers assisting them worry that assistance will not reach those Pinlaung Township IDPs most in need.
Another aid worker working in Pinlaung Township said: “After the earthquake, most donors turned their attention there, so less aid is getting to the war-displaced people. If this keeps up, there’s a real worry about a serious food shortage in the long term.”
Though there is no longer any fighting in the areas they fled, most of the Pinlaung Township villagers are still too scared to return to their homes.
In some communities, the charred ruins of homes torched during the fighting lie soaked by sudden downpours, yet they still carry the acrid scent of scorched wood.
An IDP from Pinlaung Township said: “A few people took the risk and went back home, but most are still too scared to return. Some houses have been burned down, and those who lost their homes have nowhere to go now.”
Most of the IDPs from around Hsawngpyaung Village rely on farming for their livelihood. Already in 2024 fighting stopped many of them from being able to grow and harvest their crops, which led to them suffering from severe hardship. For some unfortunate displaced farmers in Pinlaung Township this will be the third year that they will have been unable to farm or harvest crops due to fighting in the area.
If they cannot farm this year many of the IDPs from around Hsawngpyaung Village will struggle to afford their basic necessities and will not be able to afford to send their children to school.
Displaced parents from Pinlaung Township are worried about their children’s education. Schools in Pinlaung Township are reopening for the new academic year in July, but the displaced parents worry that even if they can afford to send their children to school there will be no school their children can attend because they are staying far away from their children’s school and there are insufficient school places for IDP children in the areas where they are sheltering.
Those who have already returned to their villages worry that their children might not be safe at school due to the risk of more fighting happening in the area, whilst other families have far more pressing problems than sending their children to school.
An aid worker helping the IDPs from Pinlaung Township said: “Some have gone back to their villages, but their homes are already gone. There are also families who say they can’t focus on keeping their kids in school when they don’t even have a place to live.”
Pinlaung Township, along with the townships of Hopong and Hsihseng make up the Pa-O Self-Administered Zone which is mainly controlled by the junta and its ally, the PNO. Despite this, defence forces have regularly launched offensives in the Pa-O Self-Administered Zone.
Previously, there was fighting in the area of Hsawngpyaung Village in February 2023 when a coalition of resistance forces led by the KNDF launched an offensive against junta-PNO alliance troops stationed near the village.
Imagining a future where there was no more fighting, a displaced man from Pinlaung Township said: “It would be amazing if the fighting stopped. Then we could get back to farming in peace, plant our crops again, and not have to keep running and living as displaced people anymore.”
