“There are 134 refugee families comprising 627 members from Myitkyina and Waingmaw townships in Kachin State. We are going to relocate them by the end of February because the children from the refugee camps must take their school exams. The Kachin State government committee will send them to the new model village, and the World Food Programme (WFP) will provide rations for them. We haven’t yet discussed when the WFP will deliver the aid for them. We chose monasteries and churches as delivery sites, but we haven’t been able to implement the plan,” said Bauk Jar.

The Kachin State government committee built the Ngwei Pjo Model Village, which contains 285 houses, in 2013. It is located near Inn Khaing Bon Mountain, Kachin State.

Over 500 people from 112 families from the Waingmaw refugee camp were transferred to the new model village on May 10, 2014, for the first phase of the project. Moreover, 65 families comprising 365 members moved to Ngwei Pjo Model Village on March 28, 2015, in the second time.

More than 100,000 war refugees have been displaced from their homes due to fighting between the government army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) starting in June 9, 2011. A total of 9,439 families comprising 43,378 people in 101 refugee camps remain in government-controlled areas, while 82,000 refugees are staying under the protection of the Kachin Independence Organisation.

The government and KIA agreed to displace internal displaced persons (IDPs) from four villages in October 2013. However, the plans for the resettlement of the IDPs have not been implemented yet. Meanwhile, the clashes continue, and the number of IDPs is rising.