The displaced people _ from IDPs camps in Nattalin Township, Bago Region _ are having a hard time due to the high price of rice, according to internally displaced people.
“Rice price has gone up so much that I can’t buy it. I buy paddies and grind them with a manual thresher. I buy a basket of paddy for 20,000 kyats and grind it with a manual thresher for 30 minutes to get a bushel of rice,” an IDP man from Thaphan Chaung village told MPA.
In addition, the price of raw rice is more than 6,000 kyats per bushel, and the military junta has limited the sale of only 8 bushels of rice per household, so displaced people are facing more difficulties, according to a resident from Nyaung Lay Pin village who are helping a IDP camp.
“Currently, there are nearly 500 displaced people from the villages of Nyaung Lay Pin, Tha Phan Kyaung, Kwe Gyi, and Kyauk Pyoke. Some of them have moved to areas where they have relatives. Those who remained in the camp can only buy paddies and eat rice, grinding paddies with manual thrashers,” he said.
“On January 1, the military junta patrolled Nattalin Township and burned down the medical center of an IDP camp. So the displaced people need medicines,” a people from an IDP camp said.
Currently, the military junta is preparing to form pro-junta Pyusawhti militias in Bago Region and the villages that refused to form the militia were being burnt down, according to local people.