Humanity Knows No Borders

Nagas in Nagaland reached out to their brethren across the border with essential supplies and medicines and further strengthened an age-old bond.

- Ananya Dasgupta

Since August this year, certain stretches of the Northeast have remained on alert—an unknown disease, later identified as measles, had broken out in the areas contiguous to the region. The disease had spread through the Naga villages in Myanmar resulting in the death of 85 persons till date. The disease predominantly affected the Lahe and Nanyun townships in the Naga Self Administered Zones in Myanmar. With the Government of Myanmar too slow to respond, and the Naga areas too underdeveloped to provide relief, the Naga brethren on the Indian side of the border came to the rescue.

The Council of Naga Affairs (CNA) who was at the helm of organizing relief for the disease hit people in Myanmar stated that it is frustrated by the attitude of the elected NLD government in Myanmar towards the Naga areas. CNA Spokesperson Ke Jung informed that despite the outbreak of the epidemic as early as in April, authorities in Myanmar responded only by the first week of August. ‘There is no medical staff for clinics in the Naga villages. The new government hasn’t even formed an emergency committee to combat this situation,’ he said in anguish.

Angami Baptist Churches Council