Pan Nyo village in Myaung Township on Monday. / Civil Defense and Security Organization of Myaung
Around 150 houses were looted and burned by Myanmar junta forces in Myaung Township, Sagaing Region, on Monday, according to resistance forces.
On Saturday, around 100 troops and Pyu Saw Htee militia allies arrived by motorboat and occupied Pan Nyo village at the confluence of the Ayeyarwady and Chindwin rivers, according to the Civil Defense and Security Organization of Myaung resistance group.
“We didn’t attack while they were looting but we felt compelled to act when they started torching houses. That stopped the whole village being burned down,” Ko Nway Oo of the organization told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.
Resistance forces from Myaung and Myinmu in Sagaing Region and Mandalay and Magwe regions attacked the troops, forcing a retreat by motorboat. Loot was left piled on the riverbank.
Two militia members were killed and there were no resistance casualties, Ko Nway Oo said. A resident died in a burning house.
Around 150 of more than 800 village houses were burned down, he said.
Several thousand villagers from Pan Nyo and neighboring villages have fled their homes amid ongoing regime shelling from across the Ayeyarwady.
In May last year, regime forces burned down 14 houses in Pan Nyo.
Faced with near-daily attacks, the junta continues to burn people alive, massacre civilians and use civilians as human shields. It shells and carries out airstrikes on civilian areas and uses sexual violence.
