Sagaing Villagers Flee Again After New Myanmar Junta Raid
By The Irrawaddy 28 July 2022
More than 1,000 villagers in northern Salingyi Township, Sagaing Region, have fled after a Myanmar junta raid on Thursday.
Around 150 soldiers torched Yay Khar and Shwe Htauk villages, according to Salingyi Information.
“The villagers only returned a few days ago after fleeing a raid last month,” a Salingyi resident said.
Yay Khar had more than 100 houses and Shwe Htauk had around 150. The villagers could not verify the number of houses burned down by the soldiers. Ten villages in the area have been abandoned.
“They urgently need food,” the resident said.
Three Yay Mein Taung villagers in Salingyi and two other civilians were killed by regime soldiers on Tuesday.
Regime troops raided numerous villages in Salingyi in June and tens of thousands of civilians fled their homes.
Salingyi is a resistance stronghold that borders Yinmarbin Township. Numerous Sagaing Region villages have been torched by the junta.
The United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, estimated that Sagaing Region has the highest number of displaced civilians since the 2021 coup with an estimated 260,600.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported in its Myanmar Humanitarian Update for July that Myanmar has 857,900 displaced civilians, up from 758,000 in June.
Myanmar had a large displaced population before the coup and the UN agency estimated on Wednesday that over 1.2 million people are now displaced.
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