Around 4,000 new refugees from Myanmar have entered Mizoram over the past few days following a renewed outbreak of fighting in the neighbouring country’s Chin State.
The Chin State in Myanmar has been witnessing a faceoff between two anti-military junta forces – the Chin National Defence Force (CNDF) and the Chinland Defence Force (CDF) Hualnogram – since July 2. As a result, thousands of residents have streamed into Mizoram’s Champhai district.
As of Monday afternoon, a security official in Mizoram placed the number of people who had arrived since the start of the fresh outbreak of violence at around 4,000.
“The situation is fluid, and there is still a lot happening in the border areas, so this number is subject to change. The people have largely come into the villages of Zokawthar and Saikumphai. They are staying with their relatives on this side of the border or in camps set up by local organisations,” said the official.
A district health official said that four injured people have also been brought to Mizoram for treatment because of the fighting.
“Two of them are admitted at Champhai district hospital, and two have been referred to Aizawl for treatment,” said the official.
Robert Zoremtluaga, who leads a Champhai district committee on Myanmar refugees, said that the newly arrived people have been put up in a Young Mizo Association hall in Zokawthar and a community hall in Saikumphai. He said that before the fresh influx, the district had already been sheltering around 13,000 refugees from Myanmar.
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“A large number of people had entered on Saturday when the fighting became very intense. It slowed down a little after that, but today, there is fighting on the Saikumphai side, so more people have come in,” he said.
Mizoram has been sheltering thousands of Chin refugees, who share a common ethnicity with Mizos, since the 2021 military coup. According to Mizoram Home Department estimates, before this fresh influx, there were around 33,000 Chin refugees from Mizoram and an additional 2,000 from Bangladesh.
The current fighting in the Chin state is the result of tensions within the resistance forces opposing the military junta.
