Junta shelling kills couple, injures their two children in Loikaw

By DMG 26 Oct 2022

DMG Newsroom
26 October 2022, Loikaw, Kayah State 

A mother and father were killed and their two children were injured in the Tuesday shelling of a location where internally displaced people (IDPs) are sheltering in Loikaw Township, Kayah State, according to aid workers.

The military’s Moebye-based Light Infantry Battalion No. 422 fired three artillery shells at around 9 p.m. on October 24, and one of the artillery shells landed and exploded near a hut where an IDP family of four people were taking refuge, said an official from a local displacement camp.

“Junta soldiers from the military’s LIB 422 have been stationed at a police station in downtown Loikaw. They fired three artillery shells and one of the shells hit a hut,” he told DMG.

A 35-year-old father of two was killed by shrapnel on the spot, and his 32-year-old wife, who is the children’s mother, sustained severe injuries to her head, legs and hands, and was pronounced dead on October 25 while receiving medical treatment at Loikaw Hospital, according to Shwe Loikaw social organisation, a local charity in Loikaw.

“Two IDP children were slightly wounded and their parents were killed by the shelling,” said a charity worker.

The two children, aged 6 months old and 8 years old, are being cared for by a Loikaw displacement camp, according to the Karenni Civil Society Network.

“We are now providing medical treatment to the children and have informed their relatives about their parents’ death. They are currently being treated at the displacement camp,” said an official from the Karenni Civil Society Network.

DMG phoned Major-General Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the regime, to seek comment on the military’s shelling, but he could not be reached.

Three people were killed and five others including three children were wounded by artillery shells fired by the military on IDP camps in Kayah State’s Loikaw and Demoso townships so far this month, according to the Karenni Civil Society Network.