‘No One Came’: Over 45 Manipur Villages Burned Say They Got ‘Zero’ Help
Forgotten, Unrecognised and Unsupported by the State, Say Community Leaders
By Vishal Arora
Special Report
May 17, 2025
A displaced mother with her son. Photo by a community leader.
Two years after their homes were torched and their lives uprooted, residents of more than 45 Kuki-Zo villages from Manipur’s Chandel district are still waiting for government recognition, let alone compensation or relief. Not one official relief camp has been set up for them, no state support has reached them in their name, and the government continues to deny that their villages were even affected in the May 2023 violence.
The residents say they fled with nothing when the violence over ethnic identity and land rights erupted on May 3, 2023. In attacks by extremist groups of the majority Meitei community, more than 1,548 houses were burned in the Sugnu Hill District Council area, displacing over 8,100 people.
These settlements, part of the tribal Chandel district in southeastern Manipur, lie in the hills surrounding the valley town of Sugnu, which falls under the neighbouring Kakching district and is predominantly inhabited by the Meitei community. In addition to Kakching, Chandel borders Thoubal to the north—both Meitei-majority valley districts—making the area particularly vulnerable to attacks by Meitei extremist groups.
Chandel has been predominantly inhabited by tribal communities, with the largest groups being the Kuki-Zo and Naga tribes. Though geographically connected to Sugnu, these villages fall under the Chakpikarong Block in Chandel, where Kuki-Zo villagers have Aadhaar cards, pay house tax and vote. But the state government’s position has been that these villages do not belong to Chandel at all.
“There is no relief support received from the government whatsoever in the last two years of violence,” Thangkholun Haokip, former MLA from Chandel, told Newsreel Asia. Community leaders, including Lunthang Haokip, President of Kuki Inpi Chandel, confirmed his account, saying not a single packet of rice or tarpaulin sheet has been provided.
In 2025, Meitei families in Sugnu town received their second instalment of compensation from the government. But the Kuki-Zo families from the surrounding hill villages—who were displaced in the same wave of violence—were ignored entirely. They were not only excluded from relief measures but officially written out of the map of the crisis.
A community leader shows the affected area to a visitor. Photo by a community leader.
Denial
The denial began with the administration. District Collector M. Rajkumar, who was in office when the violence broke out, insisted that no Kuki-Zo villages were burned in Chandel, according to community leaders. He claimed that the affected areas belonged to Kakching district, say the leaders. Though these tribal settlements had always been considered part of Chandel, the bureaucratic reclassification served as justification for withholding state aid, they explain.
After Rajkumar, L. Nandakumar Singh took over as the new DC recently—but the stance remains unchanged and he has allegedly made no effort to reach out to the displaced.
The consequences of this apparent administrative erasure have been devastating.
Displaced families fled to the Kuki-Zo district of Churachandpur, where they were housed in relief camps managed not by the government, but by the Kuki Khanglai Lawmpi (KKL), a community organisation. The camps received limited relief materials from the Churachandpur DC’s office, which KKL distributed. But none of that aid was recorded or routed in the name of the displaced from Chandel, further straining the limited resources of Churachandpur, where most Kuki-Zo victims of the violence had fled.
The state government has made no arrangements for their return or rehabilitation.
Only one grouping has attempted to go back. Around 50 families from five affected villages have come together to form a new settlement centre called Thingkangphai grouping, located near their original villages. They went back with nothing in hand—no tools, no food, no houses, said Sokhogin Mate, Secretary of Kuki Inpi Chandel.
The community has a vision for rebuilding. The plan is to create a larger village with 100 houses, a school and other basic services so that life can be sustained, Mate added. But without government support, this remains aspirational.
In the early months after the violence, Kuki Inpi Chandel attempted to establish self-run relief camps in safer villages within the district—K. Molnom, Haika and Sachih. They repeatedly requested the DC to recognise these as official camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs). They wrote, they asked, they pleaded, said Mate. There was no response. Unable to sustain these camps on their own, the organisation eventually collapsed the effort.
Having no other option, they began dividing the displaced families—those whose houses were completely burned—among households in villages that had not been attacked. They shared the rice they get under the National Food Security Act. It’s barely enough for one family, but they split it between two. Mate estimates that about 200 families have been helped this way, though the burden on host families is immense.
Two children sit on the scorched ground where their home once stood. Photo by a community leader.
Political Backdrop
The political backdrop to this alleged denial is critical.
The character of the region has shifted over time. Public institutions that once served both valley and hill populations—such as the local police station and health centre—were absorbed into Kakching district. This move, community leaders allege, is part of a larger plan to systematically fold Kuki-Zo tribal land into Meitei revenue land.
The strategy, they say, is two-fold: First, allow violence to push Kuki-Zos out of border areas like Sugnu Hills. Second, once the villages are empty, claim the land as uninhabited or Meitei territory.
The Kuki-Zo leadership says this is part of a pattern affecting not only the Kuki-Zo community but also the Nagas in the region—a slow, bureaucratic redrawing of ethnic boundaries, beginning with the erasure of their homes, followed by their names, and now their land.
Community leaders say they have raised the issue with their elected MLA, S.S. Olish, who belongs to the Lamkang (Naga) tribe and was voted in with strong support from Kuki constituencies. But their appeals have been met with silence. Olish is widely seen as close to former Chief Minister N. Biren Singh.
Context
The political context in which these denials of relief are taking place is murky and deeply polarised. The May 2023 violence, which began after a court ruling and subsequent tribal protests over Scheduled Tribe status for the Meiteis, spiralled into full-blown ethnic conflict. More than 250 people, mostly Kuki-Zo, were killed, and over 60,000 displaced. Armed Meitei groups such as Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun were accused of targeting Kuki-Zo villages, especially in the valley areas.
At the centre of the storm was Chief Minister Singh. He remained in power for nearly 20 months after the violence broke out, despite repeated calls for his resignation. Accusations mounted that his administration was complicit in allowing or even encouraging the violence against Kuki-Zos. The allegations gained traction with the emergence of the “Manipur Tapes”—a series of leaked audio recordings allegedly featuring Singh’s voice, discussing the arming of Meitei groups and the planned targeting of Kuki-Zo areas.
The tapes were submitted to the Supreme Court by advocate Prashant Bhushan, who was representing the Kuki Organisation for Human Rights Trust. Bhushan argued that the recordings demonstrated Singh’s active role in facilitating violence. One tape allegedly captures him discussing access to weapons and state armouries. A private forensic lab, Truth Labs, later confirmed a 93% voice match with Singh. The case is pending.
Singh did not resign until Feb. 9, 2025, and only after facing a threatened no-confidence motion. President’s Rule was imposed in Manipur four days later, on Feb. 13, bringing the state under direct central governance. While some Meitei groups opposed the move, many tribal organisations welcomed it as a long-overdue measure.
Still, the imposition of President’s Rule has not changed conditions on the ground for Kuki-Zo victims in Chandel.
Meanwhile, community volunteers coordinating resettlement and educational access for displaced children say what people need most is a larger, more secure village to rebuild their lives. Scattered settlements cannot survive, they say. There needs to be a consolidated effort to create new homes, schools and clinics.
While this effort is still awaited, community leaders say the absence of any official recognition or sustained media attention has left the displaced effectively invisible. An investigation by an independent third party, they argue, is urgently needed to document the ground reality, assess the unmet needs and verify claims of administrative neglect that continue to deny relief to thousands.
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