Burma’s Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement says it has delivered humanitarian
supplies for over 3,800 villagers displaced by a recent wave of armed hostilities in Karen State.

Local civilians from the areas around Hlaingbwe and Maethawaw fled their homes several days
ago and headed to Myainggyingu, some 70 kilometres north of state capital Hpa-an, after a
series of intense clashes between the renegade Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and
a combined force of Burmese government troops and an ethnic Karen Border Guard Force, or BGF.

Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Minister Win Myat Aye announced on his Facebook page
that the ministry was providing rice, cooking oil and tarpaulin sheets for 665 families – a total of
3,813 people – who are taking shelter at makeshift relief camps in Myainggyingu.

The minister said it also provided cash handouts to pregnant women and new mothers to help
support them.

Earlier this week, the speaker of the Karen State parliament, Saw Chit Khin, an MP representing
the ruling National League for Democracy in Hlaingbwe Township, said that the armed clashes
had forced 2,212 individuals from 16 Karen villages to find safety in Myainggyingu.

Some displaced families are also believed to have fled to Hpa-an, but DVB could not confirm numbers