Myanmar junta airstrikes on Karenni State villages kill one, injure eight

Naw Poe

Local residents reported repeated airstrikes on three villages in a displacement site between Hteh Su Le and Nan Mei Khon, in western Demoso, Karenni State on 28 September.

The attacks left eight people injured and one person dead.

“Some parents were away from home at the time. With the situation in the area so unstable because of the conflict, they had no way of knowing when they might have to flee again. But they had gone to their fields to harvest rice so their families would have food. They had borrowed money and invested everything they had in those crops. If they were forced to flee again before the harvest, there would be nothing left for their families,” one local resident told us.

A sack of rice or a single meal is not just food for these families—it can mean the difference between life and death.

So while their parents worked in the fields, the children had to stay at home. But on that day, with their parents away, home was not a safe place. Amid the sound of aircraft and explosions, very young children huddled together and hid beneath the house. The older sister was seen gripping a sickle tightly, trying to protect herself and her little sister from the danger coming from the sky.

She was a child from Karenni, not yet grown, trying with nothing but a sickle to shield herself and her little sister from weapons being dropped from aircraft—even though she must have known there was little she could do. She could have run and left her sister behind. Instead, she placed her little sister beneath her own body and tried to protect her.

A volunteer from the TTT group, whose team recorded this account, also did everything possible to save the children, putting their lives ahead of their own even as bombs fell around them. They tried to comfort the terrified children as best they could.

This is the harsh reality people across Myanmar face as they struggle to survive amid the cruelty of war, according to the volunteer.

At an age when children need their parents close by, their parents are forced to work amid danger just to keep the family alive. If they stay home to protect their children, the family may have nothing to eat. If they go out to earn or gather food, they have to leave the children behind.

This is just one of the many hardships that displaced families across Karenni State face every day.

These children did not choose war. At an age when they should be living safely with their families and playing, they are instead learning when to hide and when to run.

Between 1 and 29 September, further attacks were reported in Demoso, Hpruso, Bawlake, Mese/Mawchee, Shadaw/Loikaw, and other areas of Karenni State. The attacks involved fighter aircraft on seven occasions, drones on nine occasions, and heavy weapons on eight occasions. A total of 24 air-attack incidents were documented, leaving at least 17 civilians dead and 48 injured.