Who are the Kukis? 

• The Kukis are an ethnic group including multiple tribes originally inhabiting the North-Eastern states of India such as Manipur, Mizoram and Assam; parts of Burma (now Myanmar), and Sylhet district and Chittagong hill tracts of Bangladesh. 
• While Kuki is not a term coined by the ethnic group itself, the tribes associated with it came to be generically called Kuki under colonial rule. 
• In Manipur, the various Kuki tribes, living mainly in the hills, currently make up 30% of the total 28.5 lakh population of the State. 

What led to the Kuki insurgencies in Manipur? 

• The Kuki insurgent groups have been under Suspension of Operation (SoO) since 2005, when they signed an agreement for the same with the Indian Army.
•  The roots of Kuki militancy lie in conflicts of ethnic identity. 
• First was the demand for self-determination solely for groups belonging to their ethnic fabric, meaning the dream to form a Kukiland which includes Kuki inhabited regions of Myanmar, Manipur, Assam and Mizoram. 
• The second reason for insurgency lies in the inter-community conflicts between the Kukis and the Nagas in Manipur.  

Why in News:

• Assembly Elections went underway in Manipur. 

Reference:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/the-history-of-the-kuki-insurgency-in-manipur/article65143720.ece