Nine civilians triggered landmines planted by Myanmar’s junta and allied Pyu Saw Htee militias in one day in Kantbalu Township, Sagaing Region, and a child died, according to sources.
Maung Phyo Wai Aung, 15, died immediately after he stepped on a mine, and his 10-year-old brother is in a critical condition.
Sagaing Region accounts for 17 percent of landmine casualties in Myanmar, according to the United Nations children’s charity, Unicef.
“Civilians have been killed and injured by junta landmines last year in southern Kantbalu but the numbers have increased,” a source told The Irrawaddy.
The mine blasts took place near Nyaungzin and Thinpaungkyin villages. A couple who came to sell goods in Nyaungzin and four villagers stepped on landmines on February 25. That afternoon
three children farming cattle near Thinpaungkyin triggered landmines.
Junta and Pyu Saw Htee troops have planted landmines around villages after raids, said revolutionary forces.
A Nyaungzin resident said: “The military has not notified us of landmines or warned us to exercise caution when we travel to other villages. No one takes responsibility. We dare not go out for work now.”
Landmines and unexploded munitions injured or killed more than one person every day in Myanmar last year, according to Landmine Monitor.
Amnesty International reported that Myanmar’s military mainly uses self-made M-14 and MM-2 antipersonnel mines. Antipersonnel mines are tiny and often hard to detect.
They are designed to maim rather than kill a victim by removing part of a leg. M-14 are designed to remove a foot and MM-2s remove a leg to the knee.
Civilians in non-Bamar states have suffered from landmines for more than 70 years.
Landmine casualties have increased in Karen, Rakhine, Mon, Kayah, Chin and Shan states and Sagaing, Magwe and Tanintharyi regions since the 2021 coup. The majority of victims are poor with limited health care, Landmine Monitor said.
Unicef reported that 102 people were killed and 288 injured by landmines or unexploded ordnance in 2022, an almost 40 percent increase from 2021.
Shan State accounted for 32 percent of casualties followed by Sagaing Region.
The report estimated that 34 percent of victims nationwide are children.