Village administrator Thein Win, from Thin Bone Dan village, Ponnagyun Township, Rakhine State,  said IDPs who fled their home in the wake of fighting between government troops and Arakan Army (AA) need food and clothes.

The Army and AA fought near Phet Wun Chaung village, Ponnagyun Township in December and 42 villagers from Phet Wun Chaung village had to flee to nearby Thin Pone Dan village.

“The main difficulty they are facing is lack of food and shelter. They could not bring anything with them. They only came here with clothes on their bodies. They don’t have pots and kitchen utensils for cooking. They need blankets and warm clothes too. They are in trouble in this cold winter,” Thein Win said.

Refugee Thaut Kyar Oo said, “We have difficulty here. We could not bring anything with us including pots, kitchen utensils and blankets. So we have difficulty in food and shelter. The village administrator here arranged everything he could for our convenience.”

 “There was fighting around December 5 in our area but it was a little bit far from our village though we heard gunfire. The place of fighting was not near our village. But now the fighting is very close to our village. We heard heavy weapons and then we fled from our village in fear,” Thein Win said.

The IDPs are from 10 families with 32 female and 19 male including children.