Two Muslim teens injured in Mrauk-U Twsp landmine blast

By DMG 08 Jul 2022

DMG Newsroom
8 July 2022, Mrauk-U 

Two Muslim teenage boys from Paungtoke village in Arakan State’s Mrauk-U Township were injured in a landmine explosion on Friday afternoon. 

The victims encountered the landmine while herding cattle with two others in pastureland near the Myanmar military’s Light Infantry Battalion No. 378, about one mile from Paungtoke village, according to Ko Myo Chit Maung, a resident of neighbouring Myaungbwe village. 

“Two out of four teenagers were wounded after they stepped on a landmine on a hill in the pastureland. One of the landmine victims lost his right leg and another one sustained injuries to his body,” he said. 

The two landmine victims are receiving medical treatment at Myaungbwe rural hospital and the condition of the teenager who lost his right leg is considered life-threatening, one of his relatives told DMG. 

“The condition of the teenage boy who lost his right leg is considered life-threatening and he will likely be transferred to Sittwe [General Hospital],” said the relative, Ko Maung Hla Aye. 

A man from Myarlikan village in Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township was grievously wounded in a landmine blast on July 4 and later died in hospital, becoming the township’s second landmine fatality in less than a week. A 40-year-old man from Wethmine village in Kyauktaw Township, who was severely injured in a landmine blast on July 1, succumbed to his injuries the following day while undergoing medical treatment at Sittwe General Hospital. 

Though the conflict between the military and Arakan Army came to a halt toward the end of 2020, landmine casualties have continued with regularity in the months since. 

As of July 8, six people had been killed and 20 others injured in encounters with landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERWs) in Arakan State so far this year, according to the Rakhine Ethnics Congress.