UN convoy finally reaches northernmost Myanmar

An UN-led convoy of trucks in Myanmar has for the first time in nearly a year been allowed to deliver food and household supplies to areas beyond government control in the country's northernmost region.
The UN humanitarian office said yesterday that a 10-truck convoy was delivering food, special nutrients for children, household and hygiene kits and water purification tablets to 5,100 of the estimated 100,000 people driven from their homes due to fighting between the government and rebels in Kachin state. The region in Myanmar borders China.
Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva, said it was the first time Myanmar's government has allowed an UN-led convoy to enter Kachin state since July 2012.

The convoy set out on a route between the towns of Bhamo and Maija Yang, delivering supplies on behalf of UNICEF and other UN agencies to people living in camps along the way, Laerke said.
The UN's top humanitarian official in Myanmar, Ashok Nigam, called on Myanmar's government and the Kachin Independence Organization to allow the convoy "to be the first of many, and that regular and unimpeded access to all people displaced in Kachin state is sustained."
His office estimates that since June 2011, the fighting between Myanmar's government and the Kachin Independence Organization has forced an estimated 100,000 people from their homes, with 60,000 of them living in areas beyond the government's control.

Myanmar has faced rebellions since achieving independence in 1948. The Kachin in the north are among several minority groups seeking autonomy who have been engaged in sporadic fighting with the government.