Manipur right now is a horror show. The northeastern state has been consumed by a civil war between the dominant Meiteis and the tribal Kukis since early May that has left nearly 150 dead, 60,000 displaced and entire villages in ashes. It’s a fiendish conflict as the world found out this week when a video emerged of a brutal sexual assault on Kuki women. 

They had been caught while running from a Meitei mob torching Kuki villages, stripped naked and paraded. One of them, 21 years old, was gangraped and her father and brother murdered. 

For a Scroll reader, that video may have been shocking, of course, but not really surprising. That’s because ever since the conflict began, we have covered it exhaustively and showed how dastardly it is. Over a month ago, for example, when much of the media had scant attention to pay to the conflict, we were on the ground reporting how the ethnic clash had slipped into a civil war.  

Our reporting on Manipur is a reflection of our commitment to cover underreported stories from underreported regions – fairly, incisively, independently.

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Sample our coverage:

‘Everyone should know what happened to us’: Four Kuki women recount brutal assaults they survived

In three separate incidents in May, the four women were attacked by gangs who said they were taking revenge for violence against their community.

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‘If you don’t take off your clothes, we will kill you’: Kuki women paraded naked in Manipur

One of them, a 21-year-old woman, was ‘brutally gang raped’, a police complaint says. The police confirm an FIR has been filed.

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Armed gangs and a partisan state: How Manipur slipped into civil war

In the valley, Kukis allege the state government and the police abetted Meitei mobs. Meiteis in the hills accuse the Centre of going soft on Kuki militants.

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Why Manipur’s civil war is being linked to the narcotics trade

While it is difficult to ascribe the violence to one particular cause, Biren Singh’s ‘war on drugs’ had undoubtedly widened ethnic fault lines in the state.

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Reporter’s Diary: I crossed ‘no man’s land’ in Manipur

A ‘partition’ is all-pervasive in the strife-torn state.

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How a seven-year-old boy and two women were burnt alive in an ambulance in Manipur

He was being taken to the hospital after having been hit by a stray bullet splinter.

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Caught in the middle of Manipur’s ethnic conflict, Meiteis who follow Christianity

The community of around 3 lakh people has been at the receiving end of violence by both Meitei and Kuki mobs.

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Why Biren Singh stays as Manipur chief minister despite even BJP leaders asking for his ouster

‘Some sections of Meitei people have started to regard him as a Meitei king who is protecting them at any cost.’

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In Shillong, Kukis fleeing Manipur violence find they are not welcome to stay

The headmen of some neighbourhoods have discouraged or explicitly forbidden home-owners from letting out houses to the ‘outsiders’.

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Manipur clashes: Why Naga churches and Mizo political parties are backing the Kukis

Voices of support for the Kuki people from Manipur’s neighbourhood are being closely watched in a state that has been bitterly divided by ethnic clashes.

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How two months of internet shutdown paralysed Manipur’s economy

Thousands across the state rely on the internet for their livelihoods. The blackout has pushed them to the brink.

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Why Kuki groups are accusing Manipur government of stifling their freedom of speech

There have been several other instances in the last couple of weeks where members of the community have been subject to legal action for their comments.

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‘Forever bond’: As Manipur burnt, ordinary people stood between attacking mobs and their neighbours

There have been several accounts of people from both Meitei and Kuki communities coming to each other’s rescue, sometimes putting their own lives at risk.

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