Raids by Myanmar junta troops displace tens of thousands in northern Magway Region

Several columns of junta troops have been raiding Magway Region’s Pauk Township since Monday, displacing tens of thousands from their homes in the region’s northern villages, local and resistance sources said. More than 30,000 have fled as three columns of soldiers advanced into the sparsely populated rural area near one of the junta’s many armaments factories in Magway Region, according to members of a Pauk Township-based humanitarian aid team working with the publicly mandated National Unity Government. “At least 40 villages in northern Pauk Township have been emptied,” a man from the township said. Knowing junta troops had captured or killed civilians during raids in southern Pauk Township earlier in the month, local anti-junta resistance forces had warned local people to flee to safe areas ahead of the junta advance. “Junta troops have tended not to open fire when entering villages recently, so there’s no sound of gunfire to warn the villagers,” a resistance fighter based in the township said. “They only shoot when they encounter resistance forces.” “What’s most important is for civilians to stay alert for sounds of shelling, airstrikes, or drone attacks by the military regime,” the fighter added. Displaced civilians after fleeing their home villages in Pauk Township to escape raids by junta ground forces (Source: Pauk Township humanitarian team) One of the junta columns, having entered Pauk Township from Myaing Township to the east, was found to be moving through the countryside around the village of Say Pin Gyi some 15 miles north of Pauk. Two other columns were dispatched from the Directorate of Defence Industries (DI) No. 24 armaments factory around eight miles west of Pauk. The town of Pauk itself is still under the military’s control. These columns, each made of around 200 troops, advanced in different directions. One moved towards Nyaung Pin Thar village some eight miles west of the town. The other moved towards Chaing Zauk village some seven miles north of Pauk after stopping in Shwe Bon Thar, a local stronghold of the pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militias. According to local resistance sources, the latter column had previously carried out raids in southern Pauk Township that killed at least seven local civilians in early November. “They killed at least seven people including a monk and two women in southern Pauk Township,” the resistance fighter said. “They also set fire to at least 70 houses in Kyauk Kar, Thee Chauk, Lel Lan and Tha Ra Hpi villages and looted people’s belongings from their houses.” Fighting broke out in Pauk Township in the first week of November when resistance forces ambushed a column of junta troops near Kyauk Kar and Thee Chauk villages around seven miles south of Pauk, according to the township’s People’s Defence Team. Pauk Township, a relative stronghold of the resistance, is not among the jurisdictions in which the military regime plans to hold elections this December and January. The regime has opted to hold the election only in territories where it has secured control. Magway Region is home to an undisclosed number of junta armaments factories, several of which operate relatively close to the DI No. 24 factory in Pauk Township. Junta troops frequently conduct clearance operations in the area to fend off sabotage or attacks on the factories by the armed resistance.

Raids by Myanmar junta troops displace tens of thousands in northern Magway Region

Villagers fled their homes as three columns of soldiers rampaged through northern Pauk Township near one of the regime’s many armaments factories in the region

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