Civilians Flee as KIA and Burma Army Conflict Continues in Hsenwi Township
By Network Media Group
Thursday, October 12, 2023
Violence between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Burma army has continued on the Hsenwi – Chin Shwe Haw road in northern Shan state, causing civilian causalities and damage to people’s houses. Almost 700 villagers have been displaced by the fighting since it started in Hsenwi Township (also called Theinni Township) at the beginning of October.
A pregnant woman was injured by a regime shell that struck Kawngkio village of Kun Kauk village-tract in the morning of 9 October, according to local source requesting anonymity. Everyone from the village and from Ner Kong and Kun Kauk villages have since fled as Burma army troops continue their shelling from Wan Pan. They have taken shelter at the monastery in Ho Mong or they’re hiding in their farms. Several homes and the Buddhist monastery was damaged in Kun Kauk village.
“Fighting is mainly happening in Kun Kauk, Pieng Hong and Nawng Moung” explained another source. KIA troops are deployed Kun Kauk, he said, and the Burma military are shelling at them from Pan Ner and Ho Nawng.
Prior to the clashes, KIA troops were reportedly making lorry drivers passing through the area pay them taxes but KIA officers were unavailable for comment about this when NMG reached out to them.
The second source said that the KIA have been staying in the villages along the highway to collect the taxes. “That’s why clashes have broken out in our area,” he explained. He said that the villager leaders told them to leave, but they didn’t listen to them.
Now that it is time for villagers to harvest their corn, they’re concerned that if fighting continues their crops will be spoiled. Villagers just want both of the armed groups to leave the area so they can live in peace. They say its the first time they have had to flee from clashes and they’re unhappy about it as well as all of the damage caused to people’s properties.
