Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese.
Nearly 30,000 civilians in central Myanmar’s Sagaing and Magway regions were forced to flee their homes in February, residents and aid workers said Friday, as fighting between the military and rebel has increasingly spilled into the country’s heartland.
Until now, branches of the People’s Defense Force and ethnic rebels have largely been fighting junta troops in Myanmar’s remote border regions.
But rebel armies, emboldened by success on the country’s periphery, are moving beyond their traditional territory and causing the junta to lose ground on its home turf as the civil war enters its fourth full year.
Increasingly caught in the crossfire are civilian members of Myanmar’s majority Burman ethnic group — nearly 30,000 of whom fled their homes in three Sagaing and Magway townships this month.
The military has responded to the rebel push with air and artillery strikes, according to sources in the region, several of whom spoke to RFA Burmese on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
In Sagaing’s southern Kalay township, on the border with Chin state, around 25,000 people are homeless after fleeing junta strikes, said aid worker Thu Rein Zin.
“Residents are taking refuge in areas considered safe from the junta’s airstrikes and heavy weapon attacks,” he said. “At least 15 villages are still unsafe to return, and residents are still sheltering in safe places. It is estimated that the total number of displaced people is about 25,000.”
RELATED STORIES
Rakhine rebels seize first police station in Myanmar’s heartland
Junta’s push to retake towns in Myanmar heartland prompts fierce fighting
Thousands flee fighting in Myanmar’s heartland
Some of the displaced people are suffering from diarrhea and skin diseases, and are in urgent need of food and medicine, a displaced person told RFA.
“With the rising number of displaced people, the demand for food, water, and medicine has surged,” he said. “The junta has been carrying out airstrikes day and night, along with random artillery attacks, until [Thursday].”
They join what the United Nations estimates is nearly 20 million people in need of humanitarian assistance across Myanmar — or just over one-third of the country’s population of 55 million. The U.N. identifies around 3.5 million of them as internally displaced people, or IDPs, who struggle to access food, shelter and medical assistance.
‘Mass displacement’ from village
Meanwhile, at least 2,000 residents have fled several villages in Magway region’s Gangaw township, on the border with Sagaing, amid repeated bombings by the junta, said another aid worker, who declined to be named. At least one civilian was killed recently in an attack on Gangaw’s Taung Khin Yan village, he said.
“As news of possible bombings spread, nearly all residents fled to nearby areas they believed to be safe,” the aid worker said.
Home to around 1,000 households, Taung Khan Yan has seen “mass displacement since the incident, he added, along with nearby villages Hnan Khar and Hmwayt Lel.
“The total number of displaced persons is estimated to be in thousands,” he said, many of whom are dealing with health problems due to a lack of clean water.
More concerned by artillery attacks
In Magway’s Nga Pe township, which lies close to where the ethnic Arakan Army, or AA, has been dominating the military in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, a junta jet fighter recently bombed Lin Tel village, killing two civilians and injuring 10 others, residents said.
A man volunteering to assist IDPs in the area told RFA that around 2,000 residents have fled, mostly from villages along the road connecting Ann and Padan townships.
“Residents — particularly those from villages along the main road — have fled to Padan, while others are seeking refuge in nearby areas,“ the man said. ”They are more concerned about artillery attacks than direct junta offensives, as their villages lie within the conflict zone.”
Inhabitants of the region told RFA the AA has been attacking the junta air defense unit in Nga Pe’s Nat Ye Kan village, and that fighting is frequent along the Ann-Padan road.
Attempts by RFA to contact Myo Myint and Nyunt Win Aung — the junta’s spokespersons for Magway and Sagaing regions — for updates on the fighting and the situation facing IDPs went unanswered Friday.
On Thursday, the shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, said that allied insurgent forces had captured a string of military positions in central Myanmar — including seven military camps in Bago region, on the old main road between the former capital, Yangon, and Myanmar’s second-biggest city, Mandalay.
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.