The first batch of 4,000 relief bags carrying rice, dried food, and other essentials for 20,000 people was delivered in a convoy by the Thai Red Cross to its Myanmar counterpart at the Mae Sot-Myawaddy border crossing, Thailand's foreign ministry said in a statement.
The project is part of a wider peace initiative by Thailand to establish a
humanitarian corridor, backed by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as a civil war intensifies between Myanmar's military on one side and ethnic minority armies and a resistance movement on the other.
The United Nations has said at least 2.6 million people have been displaced by fighting and more than 18 million people are in need of assistance.