Displaced villagers face food shortages after attack in Myanmar

More than 30,000 Myanmar residents are fleeing after a battle erupted between junta forces and a resistance group, residents and aid workers told Radio Free Asia. 

Junta airstrikes in Sagaing region’s Tabayin township forced locals to evacuate on Sunday. No deaths or injuries have been reported from junta media or local resistance groups.

As a result, villages in the area are facing food shortages, said Moe Tain, head of Tabayin township’s war relief association.

“All of them are from villages in the west of Tabayin township. More and more people are fleeing day by day and there is not enough food,” he told RFA on Wednesday. “Some of them have to search for food themselves.”

A People’s Defense Force attacked Saing Pyin’s police station in Tabayin township on Sunday, causing both groups to exchange fire and locals to flee. Later that day, junta soldiers retaliated with airstrikes on Tabayin’s villages. 

About 80 junta troops were stationed in Pyan Kya village in Tabayin township Tuesday afternoon and left on Wednesday, Moe Tain added.

Residents from 15 villages nearby, including Pyan Kya, Let Tee and Ma Gyi Oke, fled after the clash started. 

Tabayin residents faced two attacks in late October, where junta troops burned one village down and captured 15 civilians to use as human shields. 

RFA called Sagaing region’s junta spokesperson Sai Naing Naing Kyaw for comment on the attacks, but did not receive a reply by the time of publication. 

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.