New fault lines: On Manipur’s Kuki-Zo–Naga conflict

In the three years since the conflagration of May 2023 hardened into a fault line between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities, Manipur has traversed a slow path towards peace between them. After nearly a year of President’s Rule gave way in February 2026 to a Bharatiya Janata Party-led government under a new Chief Minister, Yumnam Khemchand Singh , attempts to engineer a thaw gathered pace with the everyday violence between the communities abating. Yet, many of those displaced in 2023 remain in relief camps; an RTI reply puts those dead in these camps at over 700, many due to the lack of access to basic health care and adequate nutrition. Even so, there have been tentative and encouraging openings towards rebuilding normalcy.