150,000 People Displaced by Fighting in Pakokku in ‘Urgent Need’

An estimated 150,000 villagers displaced by fighting in Pakokku District in Myanmar’s heartland are in urgent need of food, medicine and shelter, according to local aid workers.

One aid worker helping refugees from the district’s Myaing Township told the Irrawaddy that their need for shelter, medicines and basic foodstuffs such as rice and cooking oil is growing more urgent around one month into their ordeal.

“They just randomly ran to the nearest safe place,” he said. “Especially those sheltering in the jungle face a shortage of rice and drinking water.”

The regime and allied Pyu Saw Htee militia late last year intensified offensives in parts of Magwe Region including Pakokku, which lies on the western bank of the Irrawaddy River, to regain control of lost territories bordering Chin and Rakhine states.

Tens of thousands of villagers have since fled the fighting amid reports of arbitrary killings and arson attacks from marauding regime troops as well as aerial and artillery attacks.

“They are just exhausted mentally and physically,” the aid worker added.

The exact number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Pakokku is hard to establish as many move around depending on the security conditions. The district comprises five townships with a total population of over 1 million.

The challenge of humanitarian assistance has grown as the conflict deepens and the regional interim administrations established by the resistance remain patchy.

“It is getting worse as the communities or villages that once supported IDPs are also forced to flee”, an observer told the Irrawaddy. He added the need to feed such large numbers on a daily basis is beyond donors’ capacity.

He said the interim Magwe Federal Unit Government (FUG) is also short of personnel as the minister in charge of humanitarian affairs remains vacant and is being covered by the regional education minister. “It’s too much for one person to manage two big ministries”, he said.

The Magwe FUG only emerged in March 2026 as part of efforts by anti-regime organizations to build a future federal democratic system.

Its deputy chief minister, Chit Win Maung, told the Irrawaddy that the FUG has battled great difficulty in delivering humanitarian assistance from donors to IDPs in the region and is being updated on their situation by township governing bodies and humanitarian departments.

“But the intensifying clashes makes our work more difficult, and we also face resource limitations,” he said.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that there were 3.7 million IDPs in Myanmar as of June 2026, with Magwe the third most affected region with 280,000 after Sagaing and Rakhine State.