The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and People’s Defense Force (PDF) attacked troops from the State Administration Council column in Htigyaing Township, an area of the Sagaing Region where thousands of civilians displaced by patrolling regime soldiers, are now enduring hardships in makeshift camps during the rainy season.
A PDF member informed KNG that they targeted a column that arrived from Htigyaing town, between Michaung Ai and Kyet Thun Hkin villages in the southwest of the township on Friday. The fighting was intense, and SAC eventually summoned a Mi-35 attack helicopter. The resistance fighter reported that the gunship attacked Min Wun Mountain not far from the conflict site for 20 minutes, and fighting was ongoing at the time of the interview.
“People from Michaung Ai and neighboring villages at the base of Min Wun Mountain fled before the Burma army’s column arrived in their area,” explained the PDF member. The column from Htigyaing town and another that arrived by motorboats via the Irrawaddy River are patrolling the township, causing many people to flee their homes in anticipation of the soldiers’ arrival.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, nearly 18,000 people were displaced across the country in the last week of September, and approximately 1.6 million have been displaced in Burma since the coup almost three years ago, with 800,000 displacements recorded in Sagaing Region.
