Nearly 3,000 Myanmar nationals, who had fled into India’s Mizoram due to recent armed clashes in Myanmar’s Chin State, have now returned to their native villages following a temporary ceasefire among rival rebel groups.
A senior police officer confirmed the mass repatriation, noting that 2,923 individuals had returned from the border village of Zokhawthar and 39 more from Vaiphai by Wednesday.
The wave of returns began on July 7 and gained momentum after July 12, when a ceasefire agreement was brokered between two Chin rebel factions — the Chin National Defence Force (CNDF) and the Chinland Defence Force (CDF-Hualngoram) — both of which had earlier clashed with the Chin National Army (CNA) over territorial disputes in early July.
The flare-up in violence led to the displacement of more than 4,500 civilians from Myanmar’s Chin State, forcing them to seek refuge in Mizoram’s border villages including Zokhawthar, Saikhumphai, and Vaiphai.
Retaliatory strikes by the CNA on a CNDF base at Rihli village intensified the conflict, triggering the additional arrival of over 700 displaced persons to Indian soil.
Mizoram, which shares a 510-km porous border with Myanmar, has seen a steady influx of refugees since the February 2021 military coup in the neighbouring country.
Following the coup, pro-democracy movements and ethnic armed groups in Myanmar, including the Chin resistance forces, have been engaged in fierce and fragmented conflict with the military regime and among themselves.
Since 2021, more than 32,000 Myanmar nationals — mostly from the Chin ethnic group — have taken shelter in Mizoram. The Chin people share close linguistic, cultural, and familial ties with the Mizos, fostering a strong sense of ethnic solidarity.
Meanwhile, the Mizoram government is preparing to roll out biometric and demographic data collection of Myanmar refugees by the end of July.