Artillery Fire Kills 1, Injures 4 in N. Rakhine

By Min Aung Khine 6 June 2019

SITTWE—One civilian was killed and three others were injured when artillery shells fell and exploded in the village of Ganan Me in Rakhine State’s Ponnagyun Township on Wednesday evening.

A man, 45, was killed while a mother and daughter, aged 48 and 27 respectively, and another man, 25, were wounded in the incident.

“Clashes happened near our village and we had no time to flee. As we were hiding beneath the granary, artillery shells fell by our house,” U Inga Aung whose wife and daughter were injured by the mortar shells, told The Irrawaddy.

The Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw, and the Arakan Army clashed at around 2 p.m. on Wednesday near Ganan Me, and artillery shells fell on the village at around 4 p.m. according to villagers.

U Inga Aung, who lives next to the victim who died in the explosion, said that around three artillery shells fell near their houses.

“We only know that one died and three were injured in Gana Me Village because of artillery shells,” the head of Ponnagyun Township Police Force, Police Major Nyein Chan, told The Irrawaddy.

U Inga Aung’s wife was sent to Sittwe General Hospital on Wednesday evening as she was seriously injured in her hip. His daughter and another man are still receiving medical treatment at Ponnagyun Hospital.

In a similar incident on Monday, four villagers were killed on the spot and two more died at the hospital and eight others were left with injuries in the village of Sapar Htar in Minbya Township.

Currently, eight women—six from Sapar Htar, one each from Myaung Bwe, and Ganan Me—are receiving medical treatment at Sittwe General Hospital after being seriously wounded in shell explosions. All of them have undergone surgical operations.

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