Crisis in Myanmar's Kachin means jungle treks to escape war

As the Myanmar army's bombs started falling near her home in Kachin state, Nlam Numrang Doi and her neighbors decided they had no choice but to grab what they could and scatter into the jungle.

In this May 6, 2018, photo, an ethnic Kachin woman feeds her child in compound of Trinity Baptist Church refugee camp for internally displaced people in Myitkyina, Kachin State, northern Myanmar.  (AP Photo/Min Kyi Thein)

"We were in so much trouble, I couldn't even swallow my food," the 92-year-old recalled. "If we stayed in the village, we didn't know what could happen to us."

She climbed onto her grandson's back and he carried her to a river where she and nearly 800 other villagers boarded boats to reach the state capital, part of a wave of 6,800 people who have fled their homes in Kachin since a fresh government offensive began in early April.

The onslaught is part of a decades-long government campaign to defeat Kachin rebels fighting for greater autonomy for the largely Christian minority group in Myanmar's far north. The intensified offensive has renewed accusations that the army is creating a similar humanitarian crisis in Kachin to the one spawned by its violence against Rohingya Muslims in the country's west.

In this May 6, 2018, photo, ethnic Kachin Nlam Numrang Doi, 92, sits along with her husband Hkaraw Yaw, 102, at their hut in compound of Trinity Baptist Church refugee camp for internally displaced people in Myitkyina, Kachin State, northern Myanmar. (AP Photo/Min Kyi Thein)

"What we are seeing in Kachin state over the past few weeks is wholly unacceptable, and must stop immediately," Yanghee Lee, the U.N.'s human rights expert for Myanmar, said last week. "Innocent civilians are being killed and injured, and hundreds of families are now fleeing for their lives."

"All parties must take all necessary measures to ensure their safety and security," she said.

A 17-year cease-fire between the government and Kachin Independence Army was broken in 2011, when the army entered rebel territory and attacked one of their outposts. Since then, sporadic fierce combat has uprooted villagers and left hundreds of civilians dead.

The fresh exodus of villagers is adding to the 100,000 people previously displaced in Kachin and neighboring Shan state, many of whom live in camps where people already have difficulty obtaining food and clean water due to military restrictions on aid.

In this May 6, 2018, photo, internally displaced ethnic Kachins have their meals in compound of Trinity Baptist Church refugee camp in Myitkyina, Kachin State, northern Myanmar. (AP Photo/Min Kyi Thein)

Gumsha Awng of the Joint Strategy Team for Humanitarian response, a coalition of humanitarian groups in Kachin, said the army has been blocking international aid shipments to the region, a similar tactic it used with the Rohingya.

The government has denied virtually all access to the area for the United Nations and international humanitarian groups.

Those fleeing their rural villages try to seek the relative safety of the state capital, Myitkyina, which is under government control, or rebel-held cities where they can seek aid from church groups. Some who have fled, however, have found themselves stuck in a jungle no man's land unable to find a safe route out of the war zone.

One group of 2,000 villagers has been trapped in the jungle since mid-April without proper food, water, shelter and medical care, unable to get through army roadblocks to safer refuge.

In this May 6, 2018, photo, ethnic Kachin Hkaraw Yaw, left, sits along with his wife Nlam Numrang Doi at their hut in compound of Trinity Baptist Church refugee camp in Myitkyina, Kachin State, northern Myanmar. (AP Photo/Min Kyi Thein)reg

Lamai Gum Ja of the Peace Talk Creation Group, comprising Kachin notables who attempt to mediate between the community and the army, said the military is intentionally blocking civilians from being rescued because they accuse them of having connections to the rebels.

Government spokesman Zaw Htay said the government has been helping with food, shelter and medical supplies and is working to "rescue any trapped civilians."

"We are hearing that the Kachin rebels have been pretending they're civilians and that's why we have to verify the civilians very carefully," he told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

There were hopes when Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government took power in 2016 that there might be a greater chance for peace. But Kachin support for Suu Kyi and her party has so far failed to pay any dividends, with the military still flexing its constitutionally ensured powers over security and border affairs.

In this May 6, 2018, photo, internally displaced ethnic Kachins rest at their hut in compound of Trinity Baptist Church refugee camp in Myitkyina, Kachin State, northern Myanmar. (AP Photo/Min Kyi Thein)

Thousands of Kachins rallied in Myitkyina last week to demand humanitarian relief for those stuck in the jungles, and on Friday the central government-appointed state minister, Hkyet Awng, joined community leaders in a march to attempt to reach one group of trapped civilians. The military stopped them.

"Stopping the minister and Christian leaders from rescuing those civilians shows that the army is more powerful than the civilian government," said Lagang Zegyung, a lawmaker representing Kachin state. "The army controls everything, especially in the ethnic regions, which makes it almost impossible for us to help civilians in the conflict zone."

For those who do eventually reach safety, they often end up in church halls like the one at Trinity Baptist Church just outside Myitkyina. That's where Nlam Numrang Doi and her neighbors ended up after their escape by boat.

"Our small church is hosting nearly 800 people who had fled from their village and now the church is overcrowded with the elderly, children, pregnant women, widows and disabled people," said La Hkawng, a church pastor.

In this May 6, 2018, photo, internally displaced ethnic Kachins rest at their hut in compound of Trinity Baptist Church refugee camp in Myitkyina, Kachin State, northern Myanmar.(AP Photo/Min Kyi Thein)

He said they are providing food and shelter and what medical care they can. But some of the wounds are unseen.

Heavily pregnant Htu Hkam Ndu said her two young children are traumatized by the fighting.

"My children are even scared of planes flying around, any kind of planes," she said. "My children keep telling me to flee every time they heard the sound of a plane flying. That's why when these children grow up, they will always remember what happened."

CAIRO (AP) — Hamas said Sunday it will dissolve its existing government in Gaza once a Palestinian technocratic leadership committee takes over the territory, as mandated under the U.S.-brokered peace plan. But the group gave no specifics on when the change will occur.

Hamas and the rival Palestinian Authority, the Palestinians’ internationally recognized representative, have not announced the names of the technocrats, who are not supposed to be politically affiliated, and it remains unclear if they will be cleared by Israel and the U.S.

The “Board of Peace,” an international body led by Trump, is supposed to oversee the government and other aspects of the ceasefire that took effect on Oct. 10, including disarming Hamas and deploying an international security force. The board's members have not been announced.

Meanwhile, the post-ceasefire death toll continued to rise in Gaza, with Israeli gunfire killing three Palestinians, according to Palestinian hospital officials.

The ceasefire began with a halt in fighting and the release of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for thousands of Palestinians held by Israel. The deal is still in its first phase as efforts continue to recover the remains of the final hostage left in Gaza.

An Egyptian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door information, said Hamas was sending a delegation to talks with Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish officials about moving to the second phase.

In comments posted on his Telegram channel Sunday, Hazem Kassem, a Hamas spokesperson, called for speeding up the establishment of the technocratic committee.

The Egyptian official said Hamas will meet with other Palestinian factions this week to finalize the committee's formation. The Hamas delegation will be chaired by top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, the official said.

Trump has said the “Board of Peace " will monitor the committee and handle the disarmament of Hamas, the deployment of an international security force, additional pullbacks of Israeli troops and Gaza's reconstruction. The U.S. has reported little progress on any of these fronts, though the members of the board are expected to be announced this week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov has been selected as the board’s director-general. Mladenov is a former Bulgarian defense and foreign minister who served as U.N. envoy to Iraq before being appointed as the U.N. Mideast peace envoy from 2015 to 2020. During that time, he had good working relations with Israel and frequently worked to ease Israel-Hamas tensions.

Also Sunday, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar met in Jerusalem with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi. Saar said Israel was committed to enforcing Trump’s plan, while Motegi expressed Japan’s willingness to play an active role in the ceasefire.

According to Japan's Foreign Ministry, Motegi visited the Civil-Military Coordination Center, where the ceasefire is being monitored. He was also set to meet Netanyahu and Palestinian officials in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

In Gaza, two men were shot dead in the southern town of Bani Suhaila, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. Earlier Sunday, a man was killed by Israeli gunfire in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, according to Al-Ahly hospital, which received the body.

In response to questions about the Tuffah incident, Israel’s military said it had fired at and hit a “terrorist” in northern Gaza who had approached troops. In a later statement, the military said it had killed a “terrorist” in southern Gaza who approached troops.

Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the ceasefire. Continued Israeli strikes in Gaza have killed more than 400 Palestinians, according to local health officials.

The Israeli military says any actions since the ceasefire began have been in response to violations of the agreement.

Israeli police said Sunday they were questioning a top official from Netanyahu's office over possible obstruction of an investigation into last year's leak of classified military information to a German tabloid.

Israeli media identified the official as Tzachi Braverman, Netanyahu’s chief of staff, who is expected to start as the next ambassador to the United Kingdom in the coming months.

He’s the latest official to be caught up in the scandal, in which Netanyahu’s inner circle is accused of leaking confidential information to German tabloid Bild to improve public perception of the prime minister following the killing of six hostages in Gaza in 2024.

It comes after an explosive interview by Kan News with former Netanyahu spokesperson Eli Feldstein, who described a clandestine meeting with Braverman in an underground parking lot in the middle of the night in connection with the leak. Feldstein, who has been indicted, said Braverman offered to “shut down” the probe into the leaked information.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid immediately called for the suspension of Braverman as ambassador. “It is unacceptable that a person suspected of involvement in obstructing a serious security investigation should be the face of Israel in one of Europe’s most important countries,” Lapid wrote on X.

In response, Saar defended Braverman’s appointment and said he would not be removed from it until formally charged or tried.

Frankel reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

This version corrects to say the six hostages were killed in 2024.

Find more of AP’s Israel-Hamas coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, left, meets with Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi in Jerusalem, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches across an area in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)