Junta forces destroy over 6,000 homes in Buthidaung

By Admin 21 May 2024

DMG Newsroom
21 May 2024, Buthidaung

At least 6,000 homes in Buthidaung were destroyed by junta soldiers and military-trained Muslim conscripts, regime airstrikes and shellings during the battle for control of Buthidaung.

Thousands of homes belonging to Hindu, Daingnet, Muslim and Arakanese people and some religious buildings in Buthidaung Town were destroyed during the hostilities.

“Almost the entire Buthidaung Town was reduced to ashes. Buthidaung Town was destroyed by the regime,” said one source.

Customary international humanitarian law requires any armed organisation to protect civilians and bars them from attacking, abducting or using civilians as human shields or targeting civilian dwellings or populations.

The toll in terms of lives and property lost has been significant in Buthidaung, where recovery and rehabilitation will be difficult for many.

“I can’t even imagine that I will have to start my life all over again. What I had accumulated all my life was lost in a moment. At the current prices, getting a house is no longer possible even if you save for 10 years,” said a local woman in Ward-1 of Buthidaung.

Myanmar’s parallel administration National Unity Government (NUG) issued a statement on May 21 expressing concern over the regime’s burning of homes owned by Hindu and Arakanese people, aerial bombardment, heavy weapons fire and burning of public buildings in Buthidaung, saying the aim has been to incite ethnic conflict.

Junta troops and Muslim conscripts have been looting the houses of residents in Buthidaung and Maundaw townships since residents fled the fighting, as well as engaging in arson, the Arakkha Army (AA) said in a statement on May 20.

In Buthidaung Township, fighting between the military and AA began in February and the ethnic armed group claimed control of Buthidaung Town on May 18.