Displaced persons increase in Yedashe, facing food shortages

Photo – Situation seen after an airstrike on the Gu Taung Pagoda Hill in Nat Chaung (Lower) village, Yedashe Township on the morning of July 7. The number of people displaced by fighting in Yedashe Township, Bago Region, is increasing, and they are facing difficulties with food supplies, according to the Yedashe Township People's Defence Force (PDF). Frequent clashes are occurring between the military junta and revolutionary forces in Yedashe Township, and the military is carrying out shelling with heavy weapons and bombing with drones, forcing many local residents to relocate, an official from the Yedashe Township PDF told Mizzima today (July 7). "The urgent needs are mainly food and essential supplies. Some houses, when the fighting broke out, people fled immediately and couldn't bring their belongings. Some people whose houses were burned down only managed to bring their personal belongings and clothes, and everything else was burned down," he said. The Swamajee (Swar Village Mother) camp of the military junta in Swar Township, Bago Region, was attacked and captured by a joint force of the People's Defence Force (PDF) on June 3. Since then, the military has launched offensives into villages in Yedashe Township and Swar Township on the eastern bank of the Salween River, resulting in intense fighting. From that time until now, there are an estimated 1,500 displaced people from villages such as Pitaukone, Kyuncone, Selwatone, Sippai, Shansut, Yengnan, Nat Chaung, and Gu Gyi, and surrounding villages in Yedashe Township, according to an official from the Yedashe PDF. In early June, more than 1,000 local residents from at least seven villages were displaced, and now more displaced people have joined them. It was also said that the military junta has cut off food supply routes to these areas and is also preventing those who wish to flee to the town by sending them back. In Yedashe Township, on June 24, a revolutionary joint force launched an offensive against the military junta troops stationed in Pitaukone and Kyuncone villages, and military tensions continue in the operational area, the Yedashe Township PDF announced yesterday. Around 10:50 AM today (July 7), the military junta bombed the Gu Taung monastery in Nat Chaung (Lower) village twice by air, even though there was no fighting. As a result, Gu Taung Pagoda Hill and the Gu Taung Dhamma Hall were destroyed, one cow died, and another cow was injured. Since the military coup, the number of displaced people nationwide has been increasing, and according to a June 11 report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA Myanmar), 3.7 million people are internally displaced. Editor: Aung Kyaw Phyo The post Displaced persons increase in Yedashe, facing food shortages appeared first on BUR.MIZZIMA.COM.