Over 120,000 people displaced in Myanmar since February: UN

By Omer Faruk Yildiz

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AA) - More than 120,000 people are currently displaced in Myanmar amid growing conflict between the Myanmar military and ethnic armed groups, according to a UN report released on Friday.

Fighting has particularly intensified in Kachin, Kayin, northern Shan, Chin, and Kayah states, resulting in the internal displacement of a total of 120,900 people since February, when the military ousted the elected civilian government and seized power, read the UNHCR report.

At least 85,900 people have been displaced in Myanmar’s southeast, 15,000 in the northern Shan state, and 20,000 more in Kachin and Chin states, the report said.

Thousands of people need humanitarian aid and “supplies urgently required by affected populations include essential medicines, first-aid kits, shelters, non-food items, foods, and hygiene and sanitation items,” it added.

- ‘75 people missing in Myanmar’

At least 75 people have gone missing in Myanmar since the Feb. 1 coup, according to a local monitoring group.

“These disappearances have occurred since the beginning of the coup … [as] the military … has consistently been perpetrating brutal crimes against civilians, including killings and torture, and disappearing dead bodies,” the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said in a statement issued late on Friday.

“Of the 75 missing, AAPP can verify 23 are disappeared, a further 52 are believed disappeared with precise status to be confirmed.”

Some of the individuals went missing after raids on residences and hideouts, while others “are now missing after having been initially confirmed detained” by junta forces, read the statement.

The group said the military junta has “has done nothing to account for these missing persons” and has been “threatening civil society and oppressing civilians who raise the issue.”

As of Friday, Myanmar’s military junta has killed 833 people since grabbing power in February, with some 4,350 currently under detention, the AAPP said.

Pro-democracy protests erupted in Myanmar when the military overthrew civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government.

Protesters continue to defy the junta despite its lethal crackdown and use of brutal methods against civilians throughout the Southeast Asian country.

*Writing by Dilan Pamuk in Ankara