Aizawl, November 27, 2022: The number of Kuki-Chin refugees from Bangladesh in Mizoram has risen to over 300, with more refugees continuing to pour into the Northeast state.
The Kuki-Chin refugees that have arrived in Mizoram escaped violence in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh.
Non-government organisations (NGOs) have been providing food, clothing and other relief materials to the Kuki-Chin refugees from Bangladesh, who are taking shelter in Mizoram.
The refugees have been provided shelter in a school, a community hall, an Anganwadi centre and a sub-center at Parva village in Mizoram.
The first batch of Kuki-Chin refugees from Bangladesh had entered Lawngtlai district of Mizoram on November 20.
Earlier, the central committee of Young Mizo Association (YMA) or Central YMA in Mizoram had stated that it would provide humanitarian assistance to the Kuki-Chin refugees from Bangladesh.
The Mizoram cabinet had also decided to provide temporary shelters, food and other basic amenities to the Bangladeshi nationals.
The Bangladeshi nationals fled their homes and entered Mizoram on November 20 following an armed conflict between the Bangladesh army and ethnic insurgent group Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA).
KNA is the armed wing of Kuki-Chin National Front (MNF), an ethnic body that demands separate state and safeguard for the Mizo communities in Bangladesh.
Mizoram shares a 318-km-long international border with Bangladesh.
The Kuki-Chin communities in Bangladesh share ethnic ties and origin with the Mizos in Mizoram and many of them have relatives in the state.
In Mizoram, all the ethnic Zo people are known under a ‘Mizo’ nomenclature, while in Myanmar they are known as ‘Chin’ or Zomi or Laimi and in Manipur they are sometimes referred as ‘Kuki.
The influx from Bangladesh came at a time when Mizoram is grappling with over 30,000 refugees from Myanmar, with which it shares a 510-km-long border.