Over 2,500 internally displaced people (IDPs) sheltering from fighting on the border between Kayah (Karenni) and southern Shan states have fled their camps after floodwaters surged by a meter (3 feet) in the past two days, rescue teams report.
Parts of Kayah’s Loikaw, Demoso and Hpruso townships and Pekon in Shan State remain flooded after Typhoon Yagi brought heavy rain in mid-September. Water levels in creeks draining from the swollen Inle Lake in southern Shan State have been surging since Wednesday.
“The water in Belu and Htoo creeks is rising along with Inle Lake and has now overflowed into the IDP camps,” said a rescue team member in Pekon Township.
Over 1,500 flood victims in Mobye, a village tract in Pekon Township, have fled their camps for hillside areas where they now face threats from landmines and junta troops, he said.
Fighting between junta forces and Karenni resistance groups engulfed Pekon and neighboring Kayah State just months after the February 2021 coup, forcing residents to flee.
Around 350,000 of the 420,000 residents of Kayah State and Pekon township are now IDPs, according to the Karenni State Interim Executive Council (IEC), the provisional civilian government.
Hardships endured by flood victims in Pekon are being exacerbated by junta troops, who are exploiting the disaster to regain territory, according to volunteer rescue groups.
“Military columns are taking advantage of the flooding to advance, which is stopping us from accessing victims and delivering humanitarian assistance,” said a member of the Karenni Humanitarian Aid Initiative (KHAI).
IDPs in neighboring Demoso have also evacuated to higher ground after the Pon Creek overflowed into their camps.
“So far, we have helped move over 1,000 people, but that figure may increase as other camps are menaced by surging water levels over the next few days,” said a Karenni IEC official.
The IEC stated on Sept. 15 that 2,600 IDPs had suffered floods at three camps in Pekon alone, where the natural disaster had killed at least three residents. Meanwhile, tens of thousands had been flooded out of their homes in the neighboring townships of Loikaw, Demoso, Shartaw, Hpasaung, and Hpruso.
