The Karenni IDP Assistance Network has launched a fundraising campaign to raise 100 million kyats in one month to buy Karenni Internally displaced people (IDPs) rice and drinking water.

The campaign is running from 10 May to 10 June and the Karenni IDP Assistance Network has called on people to take part in the campaign and to donate.

“In addition to food and a place to live, medical supplies are also crucial. The aircraft’s heavy weapon [fire] causes psychological harm to the IDPs”, said a representative of the organisation.

The Karenni IDP Assistance Network was formed by politically active young people from various Karenni townships who were eager to volunteer. They are providing assistance to villages on the border between Pekon and Pinlaung townships where the junta has launched offensive operations.

Demand for rice is rising in the face of reduced supplies. In one of the villages, Salong South, junta bombing has destroyed 70 per cent of the barns used for rice storage, according to the representative of the Karenni IDP Assistance Network.

Roughly 70 per cent of the residents of Karenni State have been forced to flee their homes due to fighting and many of them are now having difficulties accessing sufficient food and drinking water where they are staying, according to the Karenni IDP Assistance Network.

Other Karenni civil society organisations (CSOs) have said that 200,000 people in Karenni State have been displaced out of a population of 300,000 since the February 2021 coup.