Over 14,000 civilians flee as thousand-strong junta offensive and crippling aid blockade target Chin-Magway border

Mizzima

A major military offensive by more than 1,000 junta troops has triggered mass displacement along the border of Chin State and Magway Region, forcing roughly 14,000 local residents to flee into the surrounding forests amid torrential monsoon rains.

Anya Taw Ein and the Mindat Township IDP Camp Management Committee confirmed on 3 June that approximately 7,000 residents have evacuated Mindat town due to advancing regime columns, while an additional 7,000 civilians from 13 villages in neighbouring Saw Township have been displaced since the junta launched operations in the strategic Yaw region gateway on 13 May.

The newly displaced populations join 10,000 long-term internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Mindat who remain unable to return home, bringing the township’s total displacement crisis to an estimated 17,000 people. Intense clashes between the junta troops and revolutionary forces are reportedly ongoing about 10 miles from Mindat town.

As it is currently the rainy season, displaced persons in Mindat are facing severe hardships, including urgent need for shelter, food, and medicine.

“Anyone who has lived in Chin State during the rainy season will understand. It is a very harsh period. In the monsoon, it’s not just our clothes that get damp; because IDPs have to carry their rations through the rain, all the food gets wet and moldy,” said an official from the Mindat Township IDP Camp Management Committee.

The humanitarian crisis has been heavily exacerbated by severe monsoon conditions and a deliberate military blockade, as junta forces have completely cut off the transport of essential goods, food, and medicine from Pakokku toward western Yaw region townships since 14 May.

Camp management officials report that displaced families hiding in the mountains face harsh exposure with moldy food rations and an acute lack of tarpaulins, shelter, and medical supplies.

This logistical strangulation occurs alongside intense ground fighting raging just 10 miles outside of Mindat town which is largely held by revolutionary forces following a violent trail of operations through Saw Township in May that resulted in the execution of six civilians, including a Civil Disobedience Movement teacher, in Tapyin Village.