After massive junta convoy stops in Magway Region, ground troops terrorise nearby villages

Nearly two months after a military reinforcement convoy passed through resistance-controlled areas in Magway Region’s Pauk and Pakokku townships, 10,000 people have been displaced from their homes in the area, according to local and resistance sources. Resistance forces have intercepted a column of regime soldiers deployed for reconnaissance, which has been conducting raids near Pyin Chaung village some 11 miles northwest of Pauk, according to resistance fighters operating in the area. “Clashes started outside Pyin Chuang village, near the Thar Gyi Tawng oil field,” a Pakokku Township-based resistance fighter said. “Junta troops also detained civilians and looted homes in Pyin Chaung.” A junta convoy of nearly 200 vehicles has been present in the area for weeks, advancing from Pakokku Township on a roadway connecting junta-controlled urban areas in the towns of Pakokku, Kamma, and Pauk in Magway Region.Since setting off at the end of May, the convoy has been under the resistance attack throughout the 45-mile distance between Pakkoku and Pauk. The convoy has reportedly stopped near the Thar Gyi Tawng oil field near the line between Pauk and Pakokku townships, an area the junta recaptured at the end of June. “Their vehicles are currently stranded near Thar Gyi Tawng oil field and unable to move further,” the Pakokku Township resistance fighter said. More than 10,000 people have been displaced from Kamma, a small town in Pakokku Township, while some 200 junta troops have been stationed there, occupying low-rise buildings and schools in residential wards. “At least 2,100 people, about 21 percent displaced from Kamma, are staying in 14 makeshift shelters in resistance strongholds,” said a township administrator from the publicly mandated National Unity Government. “Some people are unable to return to their home villages because their houses were burned down by junta troops.” Three men were killed on July 14 when another junta column, dispatched from the Infantry Division 101 base in Pakokku Township, raided several villages near Myit Chay, a small town some 14 miles southwest of Pakokku, according to local resistance sources. “We found the charred bodies of two men in Ah Nauk Nan Gat village and another body with a gunshot wound to the head near a dock,” said a local administrator from Myit Chay. The junta column, joined by another detachment of junta troops advancing from Nyaung-U Township in Mandalay Region, torched at least 150 houses in two villages before withdrawing from the area on the same day. The Nyaung-U detachment, made up of junta soldiers and pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia members, had reportedly crossed from the opposite bank of the Ayeyarwady River to reinforce the troops in the village of Nyaung Pin, Pakokku Township according to local sources. Clashes erupted in Pakokku Township’s Kyun Ka Lay village after the junta columns separated and began withdrawing from the area on the same day. “We had a skirmish with junta troops in Kyun Ka Lay,” a Pakokku resistance source said. “The clash lasted for at least an hour, and one of our fighters was wounded.” More than 2,000 civilians remain displaced near Myit Chay following arson attacks carried out by junta troops in the area. “At least 2,300 people near Myit Chay are also sheltering in seven temporary shelters. They are still unable to return to their homes,” the source added.

After massive junta convoy stops in Magway Region, ground troops terrorise nearby villages

Clashes and arson attacks concentrated in Magway Region’s Pakokku Township have displaced thousands of civilians

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