Thousands of Myanmar villagers poised to flee violence to Thailand, group says

MAE SARIANG, Thailand (Reuters) -Thousands of ethnic Karen villagers in Myanmar are poised to cross into Thailand if, as expected, fighting intensifies between the Myanmar army and Karen insurgents, joining those who have already escaped the turmoil that followed a Feb. 1 coup.

The U.N. humanitarian office said on Friday that in all about 56,000 people have been displaced by conflict in Myanmar this year while another U.N. agency warned that the coronavirus and the political crisis could push nearly half the population into poverty.

Karen rebels and the Myanmar army have clashed near the Thai border in the most intense fighting in the area in 25 years, in the wake of a military coup that ousted an elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

Villagers on both sides of the border have been forced from their homes.

"People say the Burmese will come and shoot us, so we fled here," Chu Wah, a Karen villager who crossed over to Thailand with his family this week from the Ee Thu Hta displacement camp in Myanmar, told Reuters.

"I had to flee across the river," Chu Wah said, referring to the Salween river that forms the border in the area.

The Karen Peace Support Network says thousands of villagers are taking shelter on the Myanmar side of the Salween and they will flee to Thailand if the fighting escalates.