Junta aerial attacks have injured four civilians and killed a man and child since Tuesday near Karenni (Kayah) State’s border with Thailand, according to local social workers and a People’s Defence Force (PDF) officer.
The first raid struck Kyauk Su village, Mese Township, at 11pm on Tuesday night, followed by a second on the Daw No Ku camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Shadaw Township three hours later.
A 10-year-old boy was killed and two were injured in Kyauk Su but the details are unconfirmed, according to a spokesperson for the Bawlakhe District PDF, which operates under the Central Region Military Command of the NUG.
“They deliberately conducted the airstrikes while there were no battles going on to harm civilians,” the spokesperson said.
A church and six houses also sustained major damage in the airstrike.
A 30-year-old displaced man, who was living and working as a security guard in the Daw No Ku IDP camp, was killed in the airstrike on the camp that left two other residents in critical condition, according to a volunteer assisting displaced persons.
According to the volunteer, some 10,000 IDPs from eastern Demoso and Shadaw townships had been living in the camp, and many were fleeing to Thailand after being displaced again by the attacks.
“They targeted schools and clinics with their attacks. They’re cowards, that’s what they are,” the volunteer said, referring to the military.
An alliance of Karenni resistance forces seized control of all junta outposts in Mese Township in a series of raids carried out since mid-June.
Two battalions of the Karenni National People’s Liberation Front, formerly commanded by the military as part of the Border Guard Forces and based in Bawlakhe and Mese townships, defected to the resistance in June, joining the fight against the junta.
Military forces have now retaken control of Pan Tein village and the town of Ywar Thit in Mese Township, and have begun to carry out more airstrikes.
“We strongly condemn the military’s abuses. The international community must take immediate action against the military dictatorship, which is terrorising the civilian population,” said the Bawlakhe District PDF spokesperson.
Fighting in Mese, Hpasaung and Bawlakhe townships has displaced at least 10,000 local residents.
