Six civilians were wounded after the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) attacked a Burma Army (BA) camp in Muse District, northern Shan State.
According to a witness, the trouble began when the BA fired indiscriminately and four shells hit a village on Tuesday after MNDAA soldiers attacked their camp from a sugarcane farm at 12:30pm.
Artillery shells that hit two houses seriously injured four of the six people, including a 10-month-old infant who was taken to Mandalay for head surgery, a KNG volunteer reported. Three seriously injured people, including one of two toddlers wounded, are being treated at the hospital in Muse town.
The victims are Yan Kyon, 63, Hsu Mwe, 61, Galaung Ying Hsawng, 25, Gaya Thar, 23, Maran Hseng Nan, 2, Ran Si Phar, 2, and the baby.
A villager who fled to the border with others said they were unable to take anything with them and that they urgently needed assistance. A fence between Burma and China prevents them from going further, and Chinese border officials have already warned against camping too close to it.
“The BA has already threatened to kill us and burn down all our homes if they hear gunfire. They told us this several times before the fighting started,” he told KNG, which is why they immediately ran for safety. The man said that BA soldiers shot at some people who tried to escape on motorbikes, forcing them to dump the motorbikes on the side of the road and continue on foot, so that they arrived at the border without supplies.
Five civilians have been killed and eleven injured since the conflict began in Mongkoe sub township in early July. At least two of them died from landmines and two others were injured in the same way. According to volunteers, there are 700 internally displaced persons in the town of the same name, 400 on the border and 170 in Hpoung Hseng.
