Manipur violence accounted for 97% of displacement in South Asia in 2023: Report

Displaced Kuki ethnic devotees attend a religious service in Churachandpur, India on April 18, 2024. Photo credit: JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Conflict and violence displaced 69,000 people in South Asia in 2023, with violence in Manipur alone accounting for 67,000, according to a new report.

A report by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) called it the highest number of displacements driven by conflict and violence in India since 2018.

On 3 May 2023, a “Tribal Solidarity March” was organized in the hill districts of Manipur to protest the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. The march led to ethnic clashes between the Meitei and Kuki communities, which eventually claimed more than 200 lives.

In March last year, the Manipur High Court had called for a recommendation to the central government to recognize the Meitei community as a “Scheduled Tribe”, an official status meant to protect minorities from marginalisation.

Over 58,800 people displaced by ethnic violence since May 2023: Manipur Govt.

The call was met with opposition from other local scheduled tribes, including the Kukis.

Disputes over land were also a source of tension.

“Protests in Churachandpur district turned violent on May 3 and the violence spread to other districts, including Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur, Tengnupal and Kangpokipi, displacing about 67,000,” the report said.

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More than three-quarters of the transfers took place in Manipur, but almost a fifth went to the neighboring state of Mizoram and a smaller number to Nagaland and Assam.

As the violence escalated, the central government imposed a curfew, shut down the internet and deployed security forces.

It also set up relief camps and set up a Manipur Peace Committee chaired by the state governor, but the initiative was hampered by disagreements over its composition.

All those displaced by the violence were still living in internal displacement at the end of the year, IDMC noted.

The IDMC reported that at the end of 2023, around 5.3 million people were internally displaced due to conflict and violence in South Asia, 80% of whom were in Afghanistan.

Published – 15 May 2024 15:10 IST