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More than 30,000 people in Myanmar‘s war-torn eastern states of Kayah and Shan are still in urgent need of aid more than two months after Asia’s worst storm of the year caused widespread flooding, residents said.
The ongoing challenges facing victims of Typhoon Yagi come amid reports that the junta, which seized power in a February 2021 coup d’etat, has been blocking the delivery of aid and targeting civil society organizations it alleges are supporting the armed opposition.
In late September, rain from Typhoon Yagi triggered flooding and landslides that damaged schools and tens of thousands of homes in Kayah and Shan states and the Mandalay region. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that the flooding had affected more than 1 million people in 70 towns across the country.
As of Monday in Loikaw - the capital of Kayah state, where more than 16,000 homes were inundated by the flooding - low-lying neighborhoods such as Min Su, Dau, Naw Khue and Namt Kut remain underwater, with more than 200 residents taking refuge in religious buildings and monasteries.
“The water needs to be pumped out ... [as it] has become dirty and muddy,” said one resident who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke to RFA Burmese on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
Few aid groups have reached the areas and residents have yet to be able to clean out their homes, he said, while remote villages impacted by the flooding have received even less assistance than the towns.
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In western Hpruso township, commodity prices have sharply risen as roads remain blocked by flooding and landslides, a resident said, noting that the transportation of goods from Loikaw had already been hindered by the junta since last year.
“It has been difficult to buy commodities in our area,” he said. “Even eggs are out of stock, and basic food items are not regularly available.”
More than 30,000 residents of 16 camps for those displaced by conflict and 54 villages across Kayah’s Loikaw, Nan Ma Khon, Dee Baung Khu, Demoso (East), Ho Yar, Bawlake, Mawchee, Hso Mo/Phay Hsoe Lay, and Mese townships, as well as Pekon township in neighboring southern Shan state, remain impacted, residents said.
Junta blocking aid, withholding relief
Banyar, the secretary of the Karenni Interim Executive Council, or IEC, told RFA that the junta had cut food supplies and had yet to provide relief to the areas, worsening hardships for residents.
He urged international aid groups to work with the IEC to address food shortages, noting that his organization had “not received sufficient aid so far.”
According to the IEC, more than 150,000 people have been displaced by armed conflict and natural disasters in Kayah state, requiring more than US$3 million per month to feed.
The group said that nearly 2,000 families were left homeless and more than 10,000 acres of agricultural land destroyed by natural disasters alone.
Attempts by RFA to contact the junta‘s Kayah state spokesperson, Deputy Director Zar Ni Maung, for a response to the IEC’s data went unanswered Tuesday.
Pro-junta media outlets reported on Oct. 1 that floods and landslides caused by Typhoon Yagi had killed 436 people and left 66 people missing across Myanmar.
The junta has said it received over 40 billion kyats (US$19 million) in aid from Myanmar business tycoons to assist flood-affected areas in September.
Approximately 13.3 million people - or around one-fourth of Myanmar’s population - are facing food insecurity, with 2.7 million of them in critical need, according to the World Food Program.
Aid groups targeted
The urgent need for flood relief in Kayah and Shan states comes amid reports that the junta raided the headquarters of social welfare group Min Khaung Ambulance and Emergency Rescue Service, or M-Rescue, last week in Mandalay region’s Aung Myay Thar Zan township.
Sources close to the group said that authorities arrested eight M-Rescue members, including the group’s chairman Khin Maung Tint, during the Oct. 26 raid.
They said witnesses at the office claimed that the eight members were taken by junta forces “in a private car,” and no one has been able to contact them since.
M-Rescue was formed 20 years ago and now counts around 4,000 members through nearly 250 affiliated social organizations providing free services in health, funerals, and natural disasters in the capital Naypyidaw; the regions of Mandalay, Sagaing, Magway, Yangon, and Ayeyarwady; and Kachin and Shan states.
The more than 100 members at M-Rescue‘s headquarters in Mandalay city have stopped emergency and rescue work in the aftermath of last week’s raid, sources said.
The junta has not released any information regarding the raid, although some members of Mandalay-based social welfare groups speculated that it was linked to M-Rescue providing services for the Oct. 8 funeral of former Mandalay Chief Minister Zaw Myint Maung, who was deposed in the military’s coup, or possibly due to ties with anti-junta People’s Defense Force groups.
A Mandalay resident, who also declined to be named, told RFA that the junta should not be arresting members of social aid groups, particularly when it is failing to provide essential services.
“M-Rescue members ... have risked their lives to recover injured and fallen junta soldiers in ... areas too perilous for the junta’s own forces,” he said. “As social welfare workers, they cannot discriminate when providing essential services, whether it’s a funeral for Zaw Myint Maung or [junta chief] Min Aung Hlaing ... [Junta harassment] will hinder the vital work of humanitarian aid workers.”
Chilling effect
There are nearly 100 social welfare groups operating in Mandalay and they are worried about the recent arrests of volunteers, a relief worker in the city told RFA.
“Some members have expressed fear and doubt about continuing their work,” the relief worker said. “Our night-shift teams, composed of young volunteers ready to respond to emergencies, have voiced safety concerns and apprehension about potential arrest.”
RFA was unable to contact the junta‘s spokesperson and economic minister for Mandalay region Thein Htay about the raid on M-Rescue’s headquarters.
On Oct. 9, junta authorities in Mon state‘s Thanbyuzayat township charged three members of the Ownerless Social Welfare Group, including the group’s chairman, under Myanmar’s counter-terrorism laws over suspected ties to the People’s Defense Force, or PDF.
Other social relief workers in the Mon townships of Mawlamyine, Yamanya, Belin, Thahton and Mudon have also been sentenced to long-term imprisonment, sources close to them told RFA.
Similarly, in May, junta authorities in Sagaing city arrested three members of the Thukha Kari Health and Social Welfare Association and three other resident social workers for allegedly supporting the PDF.
Translated by Aung Naing and Kalyar Lwin. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.