Junta assaults have forced more than 6,000 civilians to flee their homes in Karenni (Kayah) State’s Demoso Township since late last week, according to groups monitoring the situation there.
The attacks, which began last Friday, are being carried out by regime forces stationed in neighbouring Bawlakhe Township, an officer of the Karenni Human Rights Group (KnHRG) told Myanmar Now.
“They attacked Daw Ta Ma Gyi village tract from Bawlakhe, displacing everyone there. Battles are also breaking out in the western part of Demoso Township on a daily basis,” the KnHRG officer said.
Residents of seven villages, including Daw Ta Ma Gyi, Daw Nyay Khu, and Daw Soe Phya, have been displaced by the recent fighting, he added.
Around 200 junta troops from infantry battalions 77, 427, and 429, all based in Bawlakhe, have been using heavy artillery to fire on Daw Ta Ma Gyi—located about 50km southeast of the town of Demoso—and surrounding villages, sources there said.
“Even people from some of the bigger villages have fled the shelling,” said a member of the anti-regime Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF), adding that the junta had also deployed two tanks in the area.
The KNDF and its ally, the Karenni Army, also reportedly engaged in clashes with the military in Daw Thae, a village in eastern Demoso Township, last Friday.
According to a KnHRG source who spoke on condition of anonymity, junta troops dropped bombs and fired on the village with machine guns from three helicopters on Saturday.
The junta has also been using helicopters to transport reinforcements into four Karenni State townships—Loikaw, Hpruso, Demoso and Bawlakhe—from southern Shan State since mid-February, a spokesperson for the KNDF told Myanmar Now.
Some of the troops have reportedly come from Pinlaung Township, where the KNDF accused regime forces of killing at least 29 civilians, including three monks, at a village monastery over the weekend.
