Myanmar regime troops have killed nearly 100 residents of Kale Township in Sagaing Region over the past two months, most of them women and children, the Kale People’s Strike Committee reports.
The committee said junta forces killed at least 97 people from February 1 to April 25 in Kale, a strategic township bordering Chin State where the junta has suffered heavy troop losses to the resistance.
Data collected by the committee shows 60 percent of those killed were women, 20 percent were children and 20 percent were men.
Victims were mostly killed by artillery and drone strikes as regime military columns advance into northern and western parts of the township, the committee said.
It said actual civilian casualty figures on the ground may be higher than those reflected in the data.
A committee member told The Irrawaddy that the civilian death toll from the onslaught of shelling and bombing in Kale is rising daily.
On Wednesday, three children and an elderly man were killed when a junta column advancing in northern Kale Township shelled their village of Pyin Taw Oo, according to residents. A woman in the village also died of injuries sustained in the same attack.
Pyin Taw Oo was shelled again a day later as family members of the four victims returned from the funerals, killing another two residents, said locals and the strike committee.
“We are terrified by the killings. We are also very worried as at least four military columns are advancing on the ground, coming from both south and north,” said a resident.
On Thursday, the People’s Defense Force engaged junta troops near Kale’s Nan Chaung village, where the troops torched dozens of houses, according to the resistance force.
