Thousands forced to flee due to flooding

16 July 2019
Thousands forced to flee due to flooding
A photograph taken from airplane window shows flooded area beside the Ayeyarwaddy river in Myitkyina, Kachin State, Myanmar, 13 July 2019. Photo: Nyein Chan Naing/EPA

Days of heavy monsoon rain and dangerously high river levels have forced more than 18,000 people from their homes and flooded at least one camp for people displaced by recent fighting, Reuters reported.

Four towns along the Ayeyarwady and Chindwin rivers were in danger of being inundated as the rivers rose, the Department of Disaster Management said.

The northern state of Kachin was the worst affected, with 14,000 people forced from their homes near the banks of the Ayeyarwady river.