Manipur Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh on Thursday (May 28, 2026) visited a relief camp housing Nagas displaced by the ongoing ethnic conflict and assured them that the six Naga men missing since May 13 would be traced soon.

The relief camp at the Makhen Baptist Church in Makhan Naga village currently shelters 35 Nagas from Konsakhul. Both villages are in the Kuki-dominated Kangpokpi district.

Armed Kuki groups allegedly abducted some Naga men from Konsakhul after unidentified gunmen killed three Thadou church leaders between Kotlen and Kotzim villages in Kangpokpi district on May 13. Elsewhere, Naga groups allegedly held Kuki villagers hostage.

An official statement said that among the internally displaced persons the Chief Minister met at the relief camp were women and children who were taken hostage but later released by armed miscreants.

“The government is taking the hostage issue seriously, and the security forces are conducting search and combing operations to locate the hostages,” he said.

He also said that four people suspected to be involved in the kidnapping of the six Naga civilians, including two church leaders, had been arrested.

Not far away in Kangpokpi district’s Taphou Kuki village, the families of 14 people allegedly abducted by Naga extremists intensified their protest, demanding equal attention from the government to the hostage crisis they have been facing.

Kuki Inpi Manipur, the apex body of the Kukis in the State, claimed that three of those abducted are minor students.

The affected families urged the Centre and the State governments to ensure the safe and unconditional release of their relatives, who have been missing since May 13.

The villagers said 25 residents were abducted while returning home after work near the Senapati-Kangpokpi border along National Highway 2. Eleven of them were released two days later in a hostage-for-hostage exchange.