Nearly 700 residents flee Maygway region’s Pauk township as troops burn village

Nearly 700 people have been forced to leave their homes after junta troops set fire to a village in Pauk Township, in Myanmar’s northeastern Magway region.

A Kyet Su Aint resident, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said that soldiers raided the village of Kyet Su Aint on Monday night and burned houses the following morning.

"The smoke started to be seen around 8:00 in the morning,” the local said, adding that shops were also destroyed. 

“I heard that a soldier and a civilian died.  I am not sure because the phone line was not clear. They [the villagers] said that bodies were buried. Villagers said that they also found stretchers. Now they [the troops] have left the village."

The details of deaths and casualties and the number of houses destroyed have not been independently verified. RFA contacted Soe Paying Myint, a spokesman for the military council in Magway but he did not respond.

Locals said there were around 170 households in Kyet Su Aint village, with nearly 700 residents. 

The junta soldiers have been raiding villages in Pauk township since Sept. 23. Residents from 11 villages, including Kyet  Su Aint, Yar Gyi Pyin, Kyauk Khwet, and Son Kone have fled the raids, according to locals.

More than 98,100 people have fled Magway region since the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021, according to data issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) on Sept. 5.