More than 100 people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced in ongoing violence that risks cleaving the state in two
As they saw the smoke rising up from torched houses nearby, Nancy Chingthianigng and her family knew they urgently needed to escape. It was early May and all around them, Manipur – a state in the north-east of India – had begun to burn, as members of the dominant Meitei ethnic group violently clashed with the minority Kukis in some of the region’s worst ethnic conflict in living memory.
As a minority Kuki living in the state capital of Imphal, where the Meitei tribe dominate in number and political power, 29-year-old Chingthianigng feared for her life; news had already reached them of relatives and neighbours being targeted by Meitei gangs. Late that night, five members of the family piled into a car and headed for a Kuki-controlled area of the state.
