Junta artillery strike kills villager, injures septuagenarian in Kyauktaw Twsp

By Admin 10 Jan 2024

DMG Newsroom
10 January 2024, Kyauktaw

A junta shelling of Apaukwa Village, part of Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township, at about 4 a.m. on Wednesday killed a local man and injured another, elderly man.

Three of several mortar shells fired by the military’s Light Infantry  No. 539 landed and exploded in Apaukwa Village early Wednesday morning. The military’s artillery strike killed U Det Maung, 48, on the spot and wounded U Ah Tun Chay, 75.

“An artillery regiment stationed at Mount Kansauk fired mortar shells into Apaukwa Village without there being any fighting in the area. A man hiding under a home was killed and another was injured in the artillery strike,” said a resident of Apaukwa Village.

The military’s LIB No. 539 is located on the Yangon-Sittwe road in Kyauktaw Township.

The military’s artillery strikes forced thousands of locals in several villages such as Apaukwa, Kansauk, Panphechaung, Mee Yat Pyin, Lanpaikkhwin, Oattaungpyin, Pyainechaung and Oo Sun Taung to flee, according to residents.

“Thousands of locals were displaced by the regime shelling. The military continues to fire mortar shells into some villages,” said another resident of Apaukwa Village.

Two residents were killed and four others were injured as Myanmar Navy vessels in the Kaladan River and LIB No. 539 fired mortar shells into Apaukwa Village after junta police near the village surrendered to the AA on November 13, the day renewed fighting broke out between the Myanmar military and the AA in Arakan State.

Customary international humanitarian law requires any armed organisation to protect civilians and bars them from attacking, abducting and using civilians as human shields or targeting civilian houses. Perpetrators can be tried for war crimes.

So far 69 people have been killed and 285 others injured in Arakan State and neighbouring Chin State’s Paletwa Township during the latest hostilities, according to a DMG tally.