Burma: Elephants come to the rescue of sick, elderly fleeing Kachin fighting

AS the decades-long civil war continues to rage on in Burma’s northern Kachin state, mahouts and their elephants are doing what they can to help the displaced sick, young and elderly villagers fleeing the fighting.

While sporadic fighting has continued in the region since the breakdown of a ceasefire between the powerful Kachin Independence Army (KIA) rebel group and Burma’s army seven years ago, rights groups say the army has stepped up its campaign while global attention focuses on the Rohingya crisis, which has seen almost 700,000 people flee to Bangladesh. The fighting in Kachin escalated significantly in mid-January.


The United Nations says more than 6,800 people have fled since April and many civilians remain trapped in conflict zones, unable to escape.

People fleeing the fighting are now sheltering in local churches, existing displacement sites, or staying with host families where they have received initial humanitarian assistance from the government and local organisations.

Travelling through dense jungle and across treacherous rivers is a sad necessity for those hoping to escape, as the people of Awng Lawt found when they were forced to flee.

For three days, the group of villagers took shelter in their paddy fields as the sound of gunfire and fighter jets came ever closer.


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