Elderly woman killed in arson attack by Myanmar junta forces in Sagaing Region

Junta soldiers and allied militias raided a village in Sagaing Region’s Shwebo Township last Thursday, torching more than 100 houses and killing two villagers including a woman in her 90s confined to her bed, locals and resistance sources said. Troops and militia members based in Zee Hpyu Kone, some 10 miles west of Shwebo, started firing on the neighbouring village of Hna Ma Sar Yit using heavy artillery at around 6am before a column of around 60 men advanced into the village.After a raid lasting around five hours, the junta troops and militia members withdrew from Hna Ma Sar Yit. Entering the village for a clearing operation after the junta forces left, resistance forces found two villagers’ bodies.Nwe Kyi, a woman in her 90s who was confined to her bed after suffering a stroke, was one of the victims. Her body was charred from the fires the troops had set in the village, according to resistance sources.The body of Aung Soe, another villager in his 50s, was found with possible signs of torture including head wounds and a severed neck, they said.A villager who assisted in recovering the victims’ remains said their bodies were found inside their homes.“Since the column came suddenly, at dawn, people had to flee from their homes unexpectedly. They probably left before anyone thought of what could happen to the elderly woman,” he said. “They had to leave the grandmother behind. Since she was a stroke patient, they probably thought the soldiers wouldn’t do anything to her.”Referring to Aung Soe, the villager added, “His body had bruises on the stomach and ribs as if he had been kicked with boots. We found blackened wounds. His legs had been cut with knives.”The military council has not responded to attempts to reach them. The junta has released public statements on recent events in Shwebo Township, but all mentions of violence attribute responsibility to resistance groups. The body of Aung Soe, a civilian villager in his 50s, found inside a house (Photo: Supplied) Myanmar army troops have maintained a base in Zee Hpyu Kone since the military coup of 2021, which has forced locals out of their homes in the area.Junta-trained Pyu Saw Htee militia forces previously stationed in the villages of Nyaung Kaing and Tei Thee Taw on the east bank of the Mu River also later joined the junta troops occupying Zee Hpyu Kone, bringing the total force in the village to more than 100, resistance sources said.The militias had joined the army troops in Zee Hpyu Kone after abandoning their bases on the Mu River due to a long blockade by resistance forces, they added. While the armed resistance has successfully held control of territory in Shwebo Township between the Ayeyarwady and Mu rivers, junta troops and allied militias have also established footholds in the area, including Zee Hpyu Kone and the town of Kyauk Myaung, as well as several villages on the west bank of the Ayeyarwady. This is the fourth time junta forces or their allies have set fires in Hna Ma Sar Yit, a village of about 400 houses. “The fires at around 80 percent of the houses weren’t even worth putting out. They’d been destroyed already,” the villager who spoke with Myanmar Now said. “I don’t know how they set fire to them, but there were no houses that could still be saved. Most of them have collapsed. They deliberately chose big, well-built houses to burn, and even some concrete buildings were so badly damaged by the fire that they collapsed,” he added. A video clip recorded by a resident showed other villagers trying to extinguish the flames in a concrete building using hoses and buckets. Local people also claimed that the junta troops looted the village, stealing clothes and food supplies. According to data collected by the monitoring group Data for Myanmar, as of December 2024 the military’s arson attacks have destroyed more than 112,000 homes in Myanmar, two thirds of which were in Sagaing Region. A burned home in Hna Ma Sar Yit village (Photo: Supplied)

Elderly woman killed in arson attack by Myanmar junta forces in Sagaing Region

Regime troops and junta-trained militia members set fire to more than 100 homes in Hna Ma Sar Yit village in Shwebo Township, killing an infirm woman in her 90s and another villager

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