Two 42-year-old men and a 12-year-old girl were injured after an artillery shell hit their village in southern Chin State’s Paletwa Township this week.
The Burma Army and the Arakan Army clashed near Ton Mawa village on November 24 for hours. A shell landed in the community at around 11:00 p.m. It is unknown which army fired it.
The child and the two injured adults, Thauk Kyar Aung and Kyaw Thein, were all receiving medical treatment in Paletwa public hospital. Kyaw Thein is reportedly in critical condition.
“The shell landed on the house of Kyaw Thein. His neighbor Thauk Kyar Aung and daughter also got injuries,” Thauk Kyar Aung’s brother Aung Kyaw told Khonumthung News.
In May, Khonumthung News reported that an elderly man and a seven-year-old boy were also injured by shrapnel from a Burma Army shell when the military opened fire on their village 10 miles outside of Paletwa. The shells were reportedly targeting the Arakan Army, who had been deployed outside of the community.
Paletwa and neighboring townships have been the site of intensifying armed conflict between the Burma Army and the Arakan Army, with thousands of people displaced by the fighting.