‘I can’t go home’: families hide in Myanmar’s forests as fighting rages

As the military targets civilians and blocks aid, those who have left home to avoid violence risk death to find food and healthcare

• Read more in our Reporting Myanmar series

When fighting erupted in May between pro-democracy armed groups and the military in Demoso township in Myanmar's Karenni state (also known as Kayah), Khu Bue Reh* had to leave his village with his wife and five-year-old son.

They hid in the dense forest, their only shelter a tarpaulin, surviving on what little food they had carried with them.