A child died of a shrapnel wound after the Tatmadaw shelled his village amid months of intense fighting with Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) in Mongkoe region.
”It was impossible to take him to hospital” because of the large number of soldiers in the area and travel restrictions during the pandemic, a local source told KNG. Without medical attention, nine-year-old Mar Bon died on Tuesday 28 September and was cremated the same day. The shrapnel from the same shell that killed the boy is still lodged in his mother’s leg.
The Burma Army (BA), which has its base in Laukai, attacked Mang Hkar with artillery at around 10pm and one of the shells hit the family’s house in the village.
The military has poured troops into the area to stop the MNDAA, which has caused a high number of BA casualties in its numerous ambushes since fighting began in Mongkoe and Pang Hseng sub-counties in early July. The armed Kokang group sometimes attacks the Tatmadaw with the Ta’ang National Liberation Army or Kachin Independence Army.
The violence has already affected over 2,000 civilians in Muse District, while at least 7 people have been killed by shelling and at least one person by a landmine.
Meanwhile, volunteers have reported that several people have tested positive for COVID-19, suggesting that the pathogen is spreading in the squalid, overcrowded camps where residents are short of food, medicine and everything else.
