Charity worker killed after vehicle fired upon in Mon State’s Kyaikto Twsp

10 Jun 2022

DMG Newsroom
10 June 2022, Kyaikto, Mon State 

A charity worker was killed and another injured in Mon State’s Kyaikto Township when their vehicle was shot at by junta soldiers on Thursday night, according to residents. 

The charity workers, from a social organisation in Sittaung village, were returning to their village after driving two patients to Kyaikto town when they were fired upon by junta soldiers near Ingabo village on the Yangon-Mawlamyine road, said a Sittaung villager. 

“We heard the sound of gunfire and mortar. [Junta sources] said they wrongly fired,” he said. 

The 21-year-old fatality was hit in his waist and died while being sent to hospital, according to the charity he worked for. 

Myanmar’s military regime has not yet acknowledged the incident. 

Military tensions are running high between the regime and anti-junta forces including the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and other resistance groups in Kyaikto Township. 

Following Thursday’s shooting, local resistance groups and the KNLA have warned travellers to take caution in travelling along the road between Kyaikto and Ingapo village, where junta troops are active. 

The incident in Kyaikto Township came one day after a World Health Organization employee was shot dead in Mon State’s Mawlamyine Township on June 8. 

A local anti-regime militia group reportedly claimed responsibility for that killing, describing the victim as a junta informant and accusing him of harassing the families of resistance movement participants. DMG could not independently verify those allegations.  

“We let him retire from this human world,” the militia group said in a statement.