As junta aircraft continue to strafe and bomb Tonzang – a town in Chin State near its northern border with India – local officials and charity workers are struggling to provide basic necessities for the thousands of civilians fleeing bullets and bombs.
Charity workers are also putting their lives at risk rescuing those who remain trapped inside the town, residents and officials say.
They estimate that about 1,000 people, including the sick and elderly, remain trapped in the town in Chin State’s northernmost township, whose residents are predominantly ethnic Zomi.
Airstrikes are preventing officials from accessing the town, a spokesman for Tonzang Township People’s Administration said. “We are trying to rescue those trapped in the town. The number of displaced people keeps increasing. Assistance is needed,” he said.
About 8,000 residents of Tonzang Town and nearby villages have fled to villages further away as well as to Tedim and Kale townships, local officials estimate.
A resident of the township said staff from charities are rescuing people trapped in the town. The rescuers are putting their lives at risk. “They hide when planes come and rescue people when the planes leave,” the source explained.
People fleeing bullets and bombs need food and other necessities, volunteers helping them say.
“Residents could not carry anything when they fled. They need shelter and food,” said a volunteer helping them. The need for tents is acute because many of those who fled the town are hiding in forests, the volunteer said, adding that rain was leaving displaced people more vulnerable.
Fighting broke out between a joint anti-regime force, including the Chin National Army, and regime troops and the Zomi Revolutionary Organization’s armed wing, the Zomi Revolutionary Army on May 15, which is allied with the regime.
Resistance troops seized the police station and junta positions in Tonzang Town on Sunday, but junta fighter jets continue to bomb the town. Junta jets strafed the town twice on Monday morning and two warplanes continued flying over Tonzang at noon, residents said.
Chin National Army spokesman Salai Htet Ni told The Irrawaddy on Sunday that Cikha and Tonzang towns in Tedim district’s Tonzang Township were captured that morning after four days of fighting.
“Our combined forces attacked Cikha and Tonzang simultaneously. We have seized total control of Cikha. And we have seized a junta outpost and the police station in Tonzang, but junta troops remain in the town and we are still fighting them,” he said.
Residents of Tonzang say the town has been hit by airstrikes since May 17 and that many homes have been damaged or destroyed. The extent of the damage has not yet been quantified because it is too dangerous to enter the town.
“Houses near the junta base and police station have been destroyed,” the spokesman for the Tonzang Township People’s Administration told The Irrawaddy on Monday. He said there were still no reports of civilian casualties.
The regime airlifted reinforcements to the town on Monday, he added.
On May 11, two churches and four homes were damaged by junta bombs in Tonzang Township’s Lonetet village.
People living along the road linking Cikha and Tonzang have fled to villages near the Indian border.
Fourteen Chin resistance groups are fighting together in Tonzang township. They include the Chin National Army and resistance groups from Thantlang, Tonzang, Haka and Matupi townships, as well as resistance groups from Magwe Region’s Yaw area.
Four Chin resistance fighters have been killed and eight others were injured in the recent clashes in Tonzang Township. It is home to about 1,000 households.
The Zomi Revolutionary Army, which fights alongside regime troops, is a Zomi nationalist group formed in 1993. With India’s approval, it became a border force based in the Indian state of Manipur. It established itself in Chin State in 2013 and became allied to the regime after the 2021 coup.
The Chin National Army earlier this month urged the Zomi Revolutionary Army to end its alliance with the junta and stop attacking Chin resistance groups.
