Junta airstrikes, shellings displace thousands of Myawaddy residents

By Admin 05 Apr 2023

DMG Newsroom
5 April 2023, Myawaddy, Kayin State

Some 5,000 people displaced by junta airstrikes and shellings in Mae Ka Nae area, part of Kayin (Karen) State’s Myawaddy Township, are in need of relief items, according to local charities.

“Since it is summer, IDPs don’t need much clothes, but they urgently need food supplies,” said an official from Thin Gan Nyi Naung social organisation.

The regime has carried out airstrikes and fired mortar shells into residential areas after an import-export office in the border trade zone in Myawaddy was attacked and burned to the ground on March 25, according to locals.

The regime’s airstrikes and shellings have forced thousands of locals from Phar Chaung, Shwe Mya Sandi Myothit, Nyinaung Ywathit and Tonedadar villages in Myawaddy Township to flee to safer locations.

“We dared not stay in the village after we heard the sounds of shelling. We are now fleeing to a safer location,” said a resident of Tonedadar Village.

The Asia Highway was closed to traffic temporarily after fighting was reported along the thoroughfare near Thin Gan Nyi Naung Village on April 4.

Vehicles were allowed to use the Asia Highway on the morning of March 5 and the junta increased military presence near Myawaddy, according to locals.