A human rights group says that food and other essential supplies for IDPs in Demoso could run out by the new year. Currently, more...

The Burmese government is drawing up plans to shutter displacement camps across the country, but aid workers say food rations and sustainable security should be first on the priority list.

Criticism has emerged over remarks by Kachin State’s social affairs minister after he said the state government did not know the location of many people displaced by recent conflict, professing ignorance amid reports of hundreds trapped in the jungles surrounding Tanai Township’s Awng Lawt village.

Villagers displaced by conflict in Kachin State’s Hpakant Township have been ordered by the Burmese military to evacuate their makeshift camps and find lodgings with friends or relatives.

Although the Burmese military doesn't want camps established for those recently displaced by clashes between government troops and the Kachin Independence Army, a cabinet official for the government has insisted that camps should be set up if necessary.

"Unless both sides stop fighting and allow these people to go home, [the Kachin IDPs] are facing a dire situation.”