Myanmar junta troops torched 10 villages in two days in Yesagyo Township, Magwe Region, killing a woman and injuring a child with reports of further deaths expected.
Around 200 junta troops raided the border with Myaung Township in Sagaing Region on Friday morning after shelling the area.
A mother of two, Daw Khin Aye Po, 38, from Mi Pha Yar village was killed and a 12-year-old in Mae Kone village was injured, according to Yay Lal Kyun People’s Defense Force.
Ko Nway Oo, leader of the Civilian Defense and Security Organization of Myaung resistance group, told The Irrawaddy that a child from Mae Kone and an elderly woman and two others from Hlay Khoke village were also reportedly killed on Friday.
The Irrawaddy could not independently verify the reports.
On Friday, the junta torched five villages, including Nwet Ni, Mi Pha Yar and Sin Te, displacing residents across the area.
Many civilian houses and a clinic in Nwet Ni were burned down, according to the Yay Lel Kyun information page.
The levels of destruction are unknown because junta troops remain in the area, Ko Nway Oo said.
On Saturday morning, regime soldiers burned down five more villages in the area.
Ko Nway Oo said he heard reports of around 700 displaced villagers in need of food.
Troops occupied a Myaung village school run by the civilian National Unity Government for a night and destroyed it when they left.
Sagaing and Magwe regions are resistance strongholds that have suffered the heaviest damage, with regime forces committing daily arson attacks on civilian homes.
By February, Sagaing Region had reported around 47,778 houses torched, followed by Magwe Region, which had lost an estimated 9,019 civilian buildings to junta arson attacks, according to the independent research group Data For Myanmar.
