Sources said 20,000 residents from 80 villages fled their homes amid the attacks.

Junta troops in Myanmar’s Sagaing region have killed at least 12 civilians and burned down more than 500 houses in 11 days since entering the region’s northern townships of Kawlin, Kanbalu and Kyunhla, villagers and local defense groups said Friday.

Sources in the area told RFA Burmese that the military had set nearly 50 villages alight since Aug. 22, forcing more than 20,000 residents from 80 villages in the area to flee their homes for safety.

Nay Zin Lat, the former National League for Democracy (NLD) representative for Kanbalu township, said a dozen people had been killed over the past 11 days and that three villages in Kyunhla township were set on fire on Thursday alone.

“Kyunhla township’s Hmaw Tone village is still burning today,” he said.

“Eight unidentified bodies were found on Aug. 23 near [Kyunhla’s] Tei Pin Seik village. They might have been burned to death or killed by heavy weapons. We cannot confirm anything yet.”

Nay Zin Lat said three fighter jets fired at Kawlin township’s Thit Seint Kone village at around 11:20 p.m. the same day, adding that “five villagers were hit and only one survived.”

The Kawlin Revolution Group, an anti-junta paramilitary organization, told RFA that four people were killed in the attack, including six-year-old Pyisone, Moe Aung, Zin Myo Tun, and his nine-months pregnant wife, Phyu Zar Win.

RFA tried to contact family members of the victims but was unable to reach them because the phone lines were cut.

Local anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) groups announced that more than 40 enemy troops were killed in a skirmish between the PDF and the military near the border of Kanbalu and Kawlin townships on Aug. 22-23, and that three officers and a cache of ammunition were captured.

A resident of Aung Chan Thar village told RFA that junta troops started burning his and other villages in Kawlin township as they passed through the next day.

“The troops that were airdropped into the area set fire to our village. The fighting took place on Aug. 22 and they started burning the village on the 23rd,” the resident said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“There used to be 75 houses in our village. They set fire to almost every village they entered. All those from our village are on the run and are depending on food donated by people nearby. But when it rains, life is miserable and we don’t have any food or medicine.”

500 homes burned

Sources told RFA that more than 500 houses have been burned since Aug. 22, including 75 from Kawlin township’s Aung Chan Thar village, as well as 59 from Kone See village, two from Tei Pin Seik village, 95 from Ein Chay village, 17 from Inn Yar village, and 53 from Ywar Koe Gyi village — all in Kyunhla township. They said at least 220 houses were torched in three other villages as well, without providing details.

“Even my pucca (brick) building has turned to ashes. All 95 of the houses have been destroyed,” said a villager from Ein Chay, who also declined to be named, fearing reprisal.

“Right now, we don’t dare to stay [in the village] and we don’t have a place to live. All the villagers have fled. When it rains, everyone has a difficult time.”

Other sources said the military had cut off internet access in Kawlin and Kanbalu townships and that details of the arson attacks remain unknown.

A member of a local armed-resistance unit said junta troops are still stationed in Kyunhla’s Ywar Koe Gyi and Kaing Wun villages and that a nearby area came under attack by air raid on Thursday night.

“The army columns are not leaving. They aren’t going anywhere,” the fighter said.

“Last night, a jet fighter came and fired at some places between their forces and our camp. It was between Ywar Koe Gyi and Kaing Wun villages and there were no casualties.”

RFA contacted the junta’s minister for social affairs in Sagaing, Aye Hlaing, but was unable to reach him on Friday.

The latest offensive in Sagaing came days after an Aug. 17 meeting between junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and U.N. Special Representative Noeleen Heyzer, during which the former claimed that his forces were not responsible for using arson attacks against villages.

However, Data For Myanmar, a group that monitors the fires nationwide, said on Aug. 29 that a total of 28,434 homes have been burned across the country since the military’s Feb. 1, 2021, coup.

RFA News

There were 59 survivors although a baby has reportedly since died.

UPDATED at 9:45 a.m. EDT on 8-31-2022

Six bodies have been discovered along with 59 ethnic Rohingya survivors on a boat floating near an island off Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady delta region.

Local residents told RFA the Coast Guard went to stop the boat on Monday after reports it had been drifting for several days in the sea near Gayatgyi island, which lies just off the coast.

One of the residents, who declined to be named for safety reasons, said that the Myanmar navy from nearby Ka Don was sent to arrest them.

“There were dead bodies on the boat. It seems the boat’s engine broke down and it floated in the sea for a long time and people died of starvation,” the resident said.

Residents said three men and three women had died, and there were 59 survivors. They said a child from the boat died after survivors were taken to the police station for Bogale township, but RFA could not verify this independently. 

Bogale lies about 65 miles (105 kilometers) southwest of Myanmar’s commercial center, Yangon.

RFA called Maung Than, who is minister of social affairs and the spokesman for Ayeyarwady regional military council, but calls went unanswered on Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear where the boat had departed from and what punitive action may be taken against the surviving Rohingyas. In the past, Rohingya migrants have faced between three and six months in prison under Myanmar’s immigration law.

On June 21, local authorities arrested 28 Rohingya as their boat neared a village in Ayeyarwady region’s Kyaiklat township.

More than a million Rohingya Muslims used to live in the Buthidaung and Maungdaw areas on the northern tip of Rakhine State. Some 740,000 fled to Bangladesh to escape army scorched-earth operations in 2017 and live in squalid refugee camps there.

Of those that remained, hundreds were killed, including women and children and many villages were burned down.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, is investigating the military for genocide in a case brought by Gambia. The U.S. State Department has already labelled Myanmar’s actions as genocide.

Even though five years have passed since that crackdown, stateless Rohingya refugees are no closer to returning to Myanmar.

Hundreds of thousands more Rohingya remain in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, where their movements are more restricted.  Zarni Soe, a human rights activist based in the state, told RFA last week that their situation may worsen amid renewed fighting between the Arakan Army and junta troops in the north of the state.

RFA News

Heavy artillery fire and airstrikes were reported in northern Maungdaw Township following an attack on a junta base last Friday

A woman was killed on Saturday as fighting between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army (AA) continued through the weekend in northern Rakhine State’s Maungdaw Township.

May Thar Sein, 60, died after an artillery shell fired by regime forces landed in the village of Min Gyi early Saturday morning, local sources reported.

The shell, which was reportedly fired by junta forces stationed in the nearby village of Kyein Chaung, killed May Thar Sein instantly, according to a man who lives in the area.

“She was getting some firewood from a pile near her house when the shell fell near her. She was killed on the spot,” said the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Maungdaw_1.Jpg

A junta soldier in Maungdaw in 2018 (EPA)

Later the same day, there were also reports that the military had carried out an airstrike near the village of Hka Maung Seik, more than 30km to the north.

According to a resident of the village, two helicopters were used to carry out attacks in the area, where AA forces had mounted an assault on a tactical base the day before.

“The airstrike was between Nang Yar Kaing and Lay Myo Kayti, but closer to Kayti. We don’t know if anyone was killed or injured,” said the local, referring to two nearby villages.

Myanmar Now has been unable to find out more information about the aerial assault, which reportedly lasted about 30 minutes.

According to teachers at a school in Hka Maung Seik, the two sides clashed for about an hour from around 3pm on Friday, and again from around 2am to 7am on Saturday.

After a shell landed on the school’s staff residence, those staying there decided to flee, said a teacher who did not want to be identified.

“We left the school on our on motorcycles at around 6am, and it was around 9am when we arrived at the Kyein Chaung security checkpoint, where they would not let us pass,” said the teacher.

“We tried to tell them that we were teachers from Hka Maung Seik, but not only would they not let us pass, but they also threatened to shoot us,” he added.
Mingyi_village-Rakhine-2021_1.Jpg

The entrance to Min Gyi, where a woman was killed by a Myanmar army shell on August 27 (Myanmar Now)

However, soon after they started heading back towards Hka Maung Seik, the group of around 10 teachers heard the sound of heavy artillery as they approached the village of Yan Aung Pyin, which is located about 1km from Min Gyi.

“We decided to go into Yan Aung Pyin to avoid the shelling,” said the teacher, adding that he had also heard reports of casualties in Min Gyi.

The Min Gyi resident who spoke to Myanmar Now about May Thar Sein’s death said that a social welfare group that had come to collect her body was also turned away at the Kyein Chaung checkpoint.

“The township administrator said he’d send a car to retrieve the body, but it never arrived because it couldn’t get past the Kyein Chaung checkpoint,” he said.

The fighting that followed the attack on the Hka Maung Seik base reportedly began after junta reinforcements arrived in the nearby village of Min Kha Maung on Friday evening.

Before leaving later the same night, the column of around 50 soldiers took around a dozen villagers, including a former village administrator, hostage, according to a resident.

“They were taken to be used as human shields, but three of them managed to escape,” said the local, adding that the whereabouts of the remaining hostages was not known.

Neither the Myanmar military nor the AA have released a statement about the latest hostilities between the two sides, which have also affected parts of southern Chin State.

Myanmar Now News