ICC Note:

Shelling by Myanmar’s military has forced people that have already been displaced from their homes to be displaced from their makeshift refugee camps. Already cut off from aid and supplies of food and medicine, people from the Kachin ethnic group, which is predominantly Christian, have suffered greatly at the hands of the military. More than 2,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) have been forced to flee during the latest clashes. The UN estimates that more than 100,000 have been displaced by fighting in the region. Myanmar routinely carries out military operations against Christian and Muslim ethnic groups. Although some of the fighting is said to target separatist militias, the victims of these offensives are often innocent civilians.

12/29/2016 Myanmar (Radio Free Asia) – Mortar shelling by the Myanmar army during hostilities between government troops and an ethnic armed group forced more than 2,000 internally displaced persons to flee their camps in Kachin state late Tuesday and early Wednesday, a refugee said.

Government soldiers captured the Kachin Independence Army’s (KIA) third battalion headquarters in Waingmaw township on Tuesday in airstrikes and attacks by infantry troops, cannon, tanks, and heavy weapons, according to an announcement on Tuesday by Myanmar’s commander-in-chief’s office.

There were no immediate reports of any casualties or injuries.

Khun Ra, an internally displaced person (IDP) who was living at the Zineaung refugee camp, told RFA’s Myanmar Service that she has heard the fighting between the KIA and government army for the past three months, and that the hostilities have been getting worse.

“We are fleeing out of fear because of the mortar shells from the government army as we can no longer live in the camp,” she said. “Many of us are now on Waingmaw Road, and we can’t go forward because the fighting is ahead, but we can’t go back to the camp.”

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