Villages empty, civilian armed groups rise in eastern Myanmar

Military attacks including on churches have forced villagers into the jungle and stiffened the resolve of those fighting against the coup.

No one is left in Mi Meh’s village. After the military began launching indiscriminate air attacks and shelling on her township of Demoso in Myanmar’s southeastern Kayah State, also known as Karenni, everyone fled to the jungle. With only the clothes on her back and a small tarpaulin for ground cover, Mi Meh and the others from her village set up camp. When Al Jazeera spoke to her on May 27, she was running out of food and water, her clothes were drenched by heavy rains and she had not bathed in more than a week.