Child, elderly women injured by junta shelling in Mandalay Region’s Madaya Township

Seven elderly women and a six-year-old girl were seriously injured after junta forces fired on two villages in Mandalay Region’s Madaya Township on Wednesday, according to local sources. The first attack took place at around 11am and targeted Taungkan, a village about 7 miles east of the town of Madaya. Two artillery shells landed in a monastery used to shelter displaced civilians, injuring three women, one of whom lost her leg, the sources said. Two hours later, the village of Wathondara, near the border between Madaya and Patheingyi townships, was hit by five artillery shells. Five women in their sixties and a six-year-old girl were injured in the attack, a local man told Myanmar Now. “They were at the village’s community hall. The women were all of similar age,” he said, identifying one of the victims as Khin Mar Lwin, whose granddaughter was among the injured. All five were initially treated in the village but were later transferred to Mandalay General Hospital due to the critical nature of their injuries. No further information about their conditions was available at the time of reporting. There were also unconfirmed reports of two men being killed by junta shelling in Aungchanthar, another village in Madaya Township, on Tuesday. Most of Madaya Township is under the control of the Mandalay People’s Defence Force (MDY-PDF). However, the junta still holds a few positions in the east of the township. According to MDY-PDF spokesperson Osmond, small-scale battles occur daily in eastern Madaya Township. The junta regularly conducts drone attacks and artillery shelling from bases to the south of the township, he said. Wathondara is one of the villages in eastern Madaya Township not yet captured by the MDY-PDF. The junta has stationed troops in nearby villages in Patheingyi Township to the south, according to a man living in the area. He added that 15 young people were rounded up in Kyarnikan, a village in the southern part of the township, earlier this week and forced to enlist in the military. “There’s a large dump in Kyarnikan where they pile garbage from Mandalay. Local people live near that dump. They mostly collect plastic. About 15 people from there were taken [by the junta],” he said. Fighting between regime forces and the MDY-PDF has been ongoing in Madaya Township, located about 20 miles north of Myanmar’s second-largest city, Mandalay, since June of last year. The fighting has displaced nearly 10,000 people and resulted in numerous civilian casualties, according to the local resistance-led civilian administration.In December 2024, at least 10 civilians, including children, were killed in Madaya Township. In one incident in October, a junta airstrike killed 12 civilians, including three monks and a child, sheltering at a camp for internally displaced persons.

Child, elderly women injured by junta shelling in Mandalay Region’s Madaya Township

Three of the victims were displaced civilians sheltering at monastery

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