Indiscriminate shelling by junta troops has forced more than 10,000 people from 10 villages to flee their homes in western Sagaing Region’s Ye-U Township twice since Sunday, residents say.
About 120 junta troops accompanied by a pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia shelled villages in Ye-U Township on Monday, killing one resistance member, according the People’s Defense Comrades, a resistance group based in the township.
“Over 10,000 villagers fled their homes again this morning as junta troops are heading back to Ye-U from Depayin Town,” a spokesperson of the group said.
A local resistance member was killed by junta shelling, he told The Irrawaddy on Monday.
There were no reports of civilian casualties in the township as residents had fled their villages in advance.
The shelling was conducted by junta Light Infantry Battalion 71, based in Budalin Township, resistance forces said.
About 10,000 residents of 10 villages in Ye-U previously fled their homes on Sunday when a junta column passed through the township on its way to Depayin Town. The same column returned from the town to Ye-U Township on Monday morning, sources said.
Local resistance forces said they ambushed the junta column with land mines on Sunday, injuring four of its soldiers.
“We ambushed [them] with land mines about four times when they went through our area,” a resistance fighter said.
The Irrawaddy was unable to verify the number of junta casualties.
The pro-junta militia includes female troops, a member of a local defense force said. “At first, we thought they were detainees who were being used as human shields, but they turned out to be Pyu Saw Htee members,” the source explained.
More than 3,400 homes and schools in 51 villages have been incinerated by junta forces in Ye-U Township since the 2021 military coup.
Six religious buildings have also been destroyed during raids conducted by junta infantry.
Junta warplanes have made six airstrikes on the township, killing at least seven civilians, residents said.
More than 20,000 people in the township need humanitarian aid, local volunteers estimate.
