Approximately 9,000 displaced people are sheltering in Hseni Township, northern Shan State, including more than 2,500 at the Kyaung Kham monastery, according to volunteers.
Fighting between the Brotherhood Alliance and the junta broke out on October 29 in the township.
Northern Shan civil society organizations reported on Friday that around 8,890 people are taking shelter in 15 Buddhist monasteries in the township.
The busiest in Kyaung Kham is on the Hseni-Lashio road near the Yaypu checkpoint and the broken Hseni bridge.
The junta’s Infantry Battalion 16 is based beside the monastery and the troops do not allow displaced civilians to leave or receive aid. The numbers at the monastery have dropped since late October when healthier civilians could walk to Lashio town. But junta shelling has now blocked the paths, civilians told The Irrawaddy.
The regime holds Light Infantry battalions 323 and 240 and Infantry Battalion 69 bases on the roads.
The Brotherhood Alliance has seized Hseni town and controls the road from Lashio side, said a 54-year-old activist from Lashio.
“The Brotherhood Alliance fires on the junta bases and they fire back with artillery. The people are trapped in the middle,” he said.
A Lashio volunteer said the Brotherhood Alliance is preventing supplies from arriving to assist civilians. “Even if the alliance allowed us access, we don’t dare deliver food or help injured people in Hseni as no one can guarantee that we won’t get shot,” he said.
“It is more important for the fighting to end than to receive aid from volunteers,” said a 36-year-old Naung Saing villager sheltering with his family at Kyaung Kham.
Mobile internet is still down and phone signals are weak across Hseni Township.
On October 31, a junta base in Hseni shelled Kyaung Kham monastery, killing a 30-year-old man and seriously injuring a man and woman.
People sheltering at Kyaung Kham say they are trying to cure about 70 patients with any medicine they can find. They said an unexploded shell was within the monastery compound.
Volunteers report that at least 15 civilians in Hseni Township have been killed and over 20 injured in clashes, shelling and airstrikes in the last two weeks.
