Three homes and a church burned down in Kachin State; Are Iranian drones being used by the military?

Three homes and a church burned down in Kachin State

Residents of Hpakant Township in Kachin State told DVB that three homes and a church in the town’s Mashikahtaung neighborhood were burned down by regime forces on Sunday. Hpakant is located 94-158 miles (151-254 km) west and northwest of the Kachin State capital Myitkyina and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) headquarters of Laiza.

A Hpakant resident told DVB on the condition of anonymity that regime forces began by burning down the home of the National League for Democracy (NLD) ward administrator in Mashikahtaung, who was ousted in the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021. Fighting between regime forces, with support from its allied Shanni Nationalities Army (SNA), and the KIA-led resistance forces restarted in Hpakant on March 2.

Residents claimed that one woman was killed and three other civilians, including a child, were injured by airstrikes carried out by the Burma Air Force on a home in Hpakant’s Tamakhan village on March 7. An unknown number of Mashikahtaung residents were forced to flee their homes when the regime forces began an arson attack in their Hpakant neighborhood on March 5.

Philippines calls for humanitarian aid to Myanmar

The Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs has called for urgent humanitarian assistance to Burma as its armed resistance against the 2021 military coup entered its fifth year in 2026. Philippines Foreign Affairs Secretary Theresa Lazaro, who is also the Special Envoy of the 2026 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Chair on Burma, briefed the U.N. Security Council in New York on Friday.

She shared on social media that ASEAN is working to advance its peace plan, known as the Five-Point Consensus, and stressed the urgency of delivering humanitarian aid to the people in Burma. Regime leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing signed the ASEAN Five Point Consensus in April 2021 but didn’t implement it upon his return to Burma. It calls for an end to violence and dialogue among stakeholders.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on March 6 that access to humanitarian assistance in Burma has been “increasingly blocked” due to conflict nationwide, particularly in Chin State, Arakan State, and Sagaing Region. The U.N. estimates that over 3.7 million people have been displaced from their homes due to conflict. Over 4.2 million people are listed as “total population of concern” in Burma. Read more