This handout from the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF) taken on May 24, 2022shows members of the KNDF taking part in a training session for female special forces members and women battalions at their base camp in the forest near Demoso in Myanmar's eastern Kayah state. (Photo: Karenni Nationalities Defense Force /AFP)
Thousands of refugees have fallen victim to seasonal flu in the eastern part of military-ruled Myanmar in an outbreak made worse by a scarcity of medicines and essential items.
The outbreak has gripped the predominantly Christian area of eastern Kayah state since September and the elderly and children are hit hard, according to Church people .
“Medicine is an urgent need for them, especially the elderly and the children,” said a priest from Loikaw diocese in Kayah state.
“Our biggest challenge is to provide humanitarian assistance, including medicines, to the people in the camps,” said the priest, who did not want to be named for fear of government reprisals.
In a few camps, refuges are forced to take outdated drugs and, which in some cases, expired over six months ago.
It is difficult to get access to new stocks, the priest added.
Two townships — Demoso and Phruso — are the worst-hit after flu began spreading in late September, according to aid workers and local media.
Myanmar's military, which seized power in February 2021 after removing the government of Nobel Peace Prized winner Aung San Suu Kyi, is accused of obstruction of humanitarian assistance as part of its strategy to sever grassroots support for resistance groups.
This includes in Kayah state, where armed rebels are fighting the army.
There are nearly 250,000 displaced persons housed in 200 camps in Kayah state, bordering Thailand's Mae Hong Son province.
An estimated 80,000 people are housed in camps run by the Church in Kayah, where Christians make up 46 percent of the state’s 350,000 population.
The state houses nearly 90,000 Catholics and is home to the Karenni, a Chinese-Tibetan ethnic group, known as the Red Karen or Kayah.
Sylvester, a Church social worker who only goes by one name, said over 1,000 refugees have taken shelter in churches, convents, seminaries in Loikaw township.
The Karenni community recently appealed to international donors to supply food and medicine.
“The people from the camps in the town have access to medicines but it is challenging for the people in the camps in remote areas,” Sylvester added.
Continued fighting in Kayah state on Oct.7 saw an eight-year-old boy killed and two houses destroyed by junta shelling in a village in Phroso township, according to the Karenni Human Rights Group.
More than 9,000 people from the state have sought shelter in Thailand since the fighting started in June, according to rights groups.
At least eight out of the 16 dioceses in Myanmar, including Loikaw, Pekhon, and Mandalay archdiocese, have been affected by the ongoing fighting.
Nearly 18 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance with 2 million displaced, and over 15 million suffering from food-insecurity in the Buddhist-majority Southeast Asian nation of 54.2 million people, according to the United Nations.
