On a rainy afternoon on 7 June 2024, a 27-year-old woman called Lalringmoi and her family fled her home in the Manipuri village of Jairon, where she had grown up, towards the neighbouring state of Assam.

A nervous and soft-spoken woman from the Hmar tribe, Lalringmoi, carried Adaline, her 10-month-old baby, in her arms, with her husband, Lalbiekthuom, a mechanic. Their three other children, aged 3, 5, and 7, ran alongside them, holding their hands tightly, as they escaped a mob of Meitei people, the largest ethnic group in Manipur.

A couple of hundred metres away from their home, they found a jeep and then a bus, carrying 50 other refugees, that would take them, and their one suitcase of hurriedly-packed clothes, towards Assam and safety.

Lalringmoi, Lalbiekthuom (both use one name) and their family are among hundreds of Manipuri Kuki and Hmar tribal minorities, both part of the Zo community, who fled their homes on 6 June 2024, when a new outbreak of violence hit the district of Jiribam and neighbouring areas.

The latest exodus from the district, 216 km west of state capital Imphal, added to the estimated 65,000 already in refugee camps since Manipur descended into civil war in May 2023, claiming at least 221 lives, with the army and police failing to bring peace.

The latest round of violence came as Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of the conflict for the first time in Parliament, on 3 July 2024, more than a year after the strife began, saying his government was “working tirelessly to bring stability and ensure peace”.

There has been no peace in Jiribam since 6 June 2024, when the discovery of the severely injured body of Soibai Sarathkumar Singh, a 59-year-old farmer from Manipur’s majority Meitei community, sparked fresh violence in a state already devastated by conflict.





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