More than 2,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Bhamo in Kachin State are in Shwegu town, facing difficulties, according to IDPs and aid workers.

The entire town (over 100,000 people) fled the city about a week after fighting broke out in Bhamo on December 5. More than 2,000 people are taking refuge in four monasteries in Shwegu town, and if those taking refuge in relatives homes and villages were being counted, the number could be in the thousands, according to locals.

One of the more than 700 internally displaced people living in a monastery near Shwe Myin Tin Pagoda in Shwegu town said, “The main thing is food. My family is also struggling. The prices of goods are rising unreasonably. The price of monthly sanitary things used by women are over a thousand kyats. Now we don’t know what to do. Young people are running to Mandalay and Yangon. Here when we go out, we are forced to be recruited. Only a few people remain in Bhamo. Many have no place to live. Many people are also running to the villages. Their lives are ruined.’’

The Thonenya Thukha Relief Association is also helping the displaced people in Bhamo and is currently providing free transportation to Shwegu and Mandalay with four vehicles, and donated goods are also being transported to Shwegu by car, according to sources.

An official of the association said, “The city is small compared with the number of the displaced people. We are also helping people who are fleeing to Yangon and Mandalay because the situation is completely unsafe in Shwegu. When we helped, we used four cars and we helped them for six times. The residents help each other. They donated onions, dried fish, salt, and seasoning powder. Shwegu produces enough rice. That means we need food. Our association also has to move to Mandalay and help.”

Bhamo city has a population of over 110,000 according to the 2024 census, and before the fighting, tens of thousands of people from Momauk, Mansi, and Out Chaung village had come to take refuge in the city.

A native of Ayeyawady Region who fled the war in Bhamo said, ''We have to beg people to return to our homeland. Even then some of us are still starving. There was a house there. I just heard that the house was burned down. We had been there for about twenty years and our live was stable. I have to say that the whole town is ruined. Everyone will say that they are right. I just think that it's not only happed to my family."

Currently, there is no one living in Bhamo city and fighting is still escalating, according to local media and social networks.