Burma Army Stops WFP Rice from Reaching Kachin IDP Camp

burmese troop in Manwin

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Man Win IDP Camp face food shortages because the Burma Army prevented trucks containing a month’s supply of rice from the World Food Programme (WFP) from reaching the camp.

The Burma Army stopped four trucks loaded with rice, cooking oil and beans donated by the WFP from leaving Namhkam to go to Man Win IDP Camp in Kachin State.

A local Christian priest who is helping the IDPs in Man Win IDP Camp said that over 3,000 people in the camp now do not have enough rice to make rice porridge because they have not received their monthly supply of rice from the WFP.

He said that the rice was still in a warehouse in Namhkam, where it had been for over 20 days.

Man Win IDP Camp is made up of four smaller camps. They are KBC-1 and KBC-2, which are under the charge of the Kachin Baptist Convention and RCM-1 and RCM-2, which are under the charge of the Roman Catholic Mission (RCM).

Many IDPs have also been taking refuge in the homes of relatives in the village of Man Win.

Groups providing assistance to the IDPs told K.N.G. that the WFP food supplies destined for Man Win IDP Camp had been seized due to joint instructions issued by the Burma Army commanders of the North Eastern Command and the Northern Command.

There have been rumours claiming that the Burma Army believed that the rice was going to ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) and that there is no longer any need for rice at Man Win IDP Camp because the IDPs have left the camp.

Similarly, on 25 August the Burma Army prevented a KBC vehicle from delivering medicines donated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) to four Kachin IDP on the Burmese side of the border with China. They stopped the vehicle at the Sinlum camp on Myitkyina-Lwal Jal Road and confiscated some of the medicines.