Aid Workers Safely Evacuated from Kokang Fighting

About 100 UN and NGO aid workers who were caught in Laogai Township where Burmese government troops and Kokang militias clashed on Aug 27 have been evacuated from Lashio Township in northern Shan State, according to officials with the World Food Program (WFP) in Rangoon.

A WFP official told The Irrawaddy on Friday, “They are safe now.”

Meanwhile, Burma’s state-run media has reported that the recent fighting killed 26 police personnel and at least eight Kokang militia.

Roads were blocked for three days during the fighting between government troops and Kokang soldiers, and many aid workers were trapped in Laogai and the surrounding area.

The Shan Herald Agency for News, based in Chiang Mai, reported on Thursday that the aid workers are from WFP, Japan International Cooperation Agency, World Vision, Association of Medical Doctors of Asia, Alliance for Reform and Democracy in Asia, Asian Harm Reduction Network and Health-Unlimited of China.

Many of the aid workers in Kokang and Wa areas work with former opium farmers who are now growing substitute crops and in community development.

Most aid organizations suspended their activities in the region.

“We stopped our project for now because the situation is not safe for our workers. But, we will start it up again soon. We are looking at the situation there,” the WFP official said.

The WFP has assisted more than 80,000 ex-poppy farmers in the Kokang and Wa areas in previous years. It has sub-offices for food delivery in Kokang, Panghsang and Lashio.

More than 30,000 Kokang civilians fled to the Chinese border town of Nansan in Yunnan Province during the three days of clashes.

The Burmese government recently announced that the area is now stable after about 700 Kokang troops surrendered their arms to Chinese authorities earlier in the week.

The Burmese government has allowed Kokang residents to return to the area. More than 9,000 people have left Chinese refugee camps to return to their homes and businesses, according to Chinese authorities, who said many others remain at a makeshift camp in Nansan.

irrawaddy