Thousands displaced west of Monywa amid Myanmar military’s counteroffensives, arson attacks

Some 3,000 people fled their homes in Sagaing Region’s Yinmarbin Township on Wednesday as junta troops conducted raids and arson attacks in the township’s rural villages, according to locals and resistance fighters. A column of around 200 troops from the military’s Northwestern Regional Military Command (RMC) headquarters in Sagaing Region’s capital, Monywa, advanced into the neighbouring township of Yinmarbin that day, torching houses in the village of Hta Yaw Kyin, resistance sources said. “Junta troops arrived at Bant Bway yesterday with seven vehicles, joined forces with pro-junta militias, and carried out raids on Hta Yaw Kyin village,” a resistance fighter based in the township said. “They are now advancing through a wooded area between Chaung Ma and Lel Shey villages but no clashes have occurred yet.” Hta Yaw Kyin lies on a major highway linking the Sagaing Region townships of Monywa, Yinmarbin, Kani, and Kalewa. The village is less than four miles west of Bant Bway, a village controlled by junta-trained Pyu Saw Htee militias. At least 3,000 people in Yinmarbin Township fled their homes as junta troops arrived at Bant Bway, less than seven miles west of the Northwestern RMC headquarters on the opposite side of the Chindwin River in Monywa Township. Residents of the villages of Kan Su, Hta Yaw Kyin, Chaung Ma, Thint Win, and Na Bu Taw are taking refuge in monasteries in neighbouring villages, while others are sheltering in makeshift huts on their farmlands. “At least a dozen homes were burned down in Hta Yaw Kyin and no one has gone back to the village yet,” a man from Yinmarbin Township said. “It’s difficult for them all to find safe places to stay.” On Thursday morning, a separate column of around 100 junta troops arrived at Bant Bway and advanced towards Na Bu Taw, about a mile to the east, where they are now stationed, according to local sources. The military regime has full control over several parts of the township, including Bant Bway and the urban wards of Yinmarbin. Since July, Myanmar’s military has been engaged in a coordinated campaign to regain ground lost to resistance forces and ethnic armed groups on multiple fronts in Myanmar’s ongoing civil war, including Sagaing Region, where the resistance remains relatively strong. On the same day as the raids in Yinmarbin Township, a junta airstrike in neighbouring Kani Township some 11 miles northwest of Bant Bway killed a teenage boy, according to locals. “Two rockets exploded on a cluster of houses on the southern edge of the village,” a man from Kani Township said. “An 18-year-old boy was hit in the head and killed instantly.” In late July, Myanmar’s military regime imposed a state of emergency in nine of Sagaing Region’s townships including Kani and Pale, both part of Yinmarbin District.

Thousands displaced west of Monywa amid Myanmar military’s counteroffensives, arson attacks

On the same day ground forces torched houses while advancing west from Monywa, Sagaing Region, a junta airstrike to the northwest in Kani Township killed an 18-year-old

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