Junta attacks, landmine kill 12 civilians over three days in Arakan State

By DMG 14 Nov 2022

DMG Newsroom
14 November 2022, Sittwe 

At least 12 civilians were killed and 16 others were injured by artillery strikes, gunfire and a landmine encounter blamed on Myanmar’s military regime over the three-day period from November 10-12 in Arakan State. 

The fatalities — including children, women and the elderly — were reported in Ponnagyun, Kyauktaw and Maungdaw townships. 

Nine of the victims were shot dead by junta soldiers in Sin Inn Gyi Village, Ponnagyun Township, on November 10, according to local residents. The oldest of the victims was 92, the youngest being 38. 

Two men, aged 41 and 60 respectively, were killed by artillery strikes in Ponnagyun Township’s De Par Yone Village on November 11. 

Also on Friday, a 45-year-old ethnic Mro woman from Jeitchaung Village in northern Maungdaw Township died after stepping on a landmine. 

Meanwhile, six people in Ponnagyun Township, seven in Kyauktaw Township, two in Mrauk-U Township and one in Sittwe Township, totalling 16, were injured between November 10 and 12. 

A 7th grader and a 15-year-old teenager were among the six injured in Ponnagyun. Others included three men aged 22, 28 and 60, respectively, and a 52-year-old woman. 

Among the seven injured in Kyauktaw were two 7-year-old girls, a 17-year-old girl, a 29-year-old woman and a 27-year-old woman. The two others were male villagers aged 62 and 73, respectively. All of them were wounded by artillery strikes on November 11 in Shwe Pyi Thit Village. 

A 37-year-old male villager was injured in Sittwe Township’s Amyint Kyun Village the same day. 

“He has a hut near Min Chaung Bridge. He and his family were catching prawns there. He was struck by shrapnel and injured,” said a relative. 

In Mrauk-U Township, a 55-year-old woman and a 12-year-old teenager were injured in Kyaung Taung Village when artillery shells fired by junta troops based in Mt. Taung Phyu hit their village, according to locals. 

“They fired shells even though there was no fighting. People were so frightened that shells landed on their village all of a sudden. So, villagers have fled to nearby villages,” said a resident of Kyaung Taung Village. 

DMG was unable to obtain comment from junta spokesman Major-General Zaw Min Tun and Arakan State Security and Border Affairs Minister Colonel Kyaw Thura concerning the rash of recent civilian fatalities. 

The Arakan Army warned in a statement on November 11 that it would retaliate against the junta’s deliberate aerial, drone and artillery attacks on villages.