A four-year-old girl was killed by a heavy artillery shell when military forces and affiliated Pyu Saw Htee militia targeted a village in Myanmar’s Magway region, according to the child’s parents.
Five people, including the child’s grandfather, were injured in the attack on Kyar Pyit Kan village on Monday morning.
The girl, Theint Theint Phyu, was hit while playing in the yard.
Her mother, Khin Sway Oo, told RFA that her daughter died as she ran to her grandfather when she heard the sound of artillery shelling.
“I was mowing grass for the cows with my elder child. I left my daughter at home because it was sunny and hot. I left her at home with her grandfather. The artillery landed in the yard. She was hit and critically injured in her back and head. I did not dare to look at my daughter. I went to the forest and I was away when she passed away”, the mother told RFA.
The grandfather was injured in the thigh. Three neighbors and a female merchant were also injured, she added.
On Tuesday morning around 80 Pyu Saw Htee members and junta troops shelled the village again, forcing inhabitants to flee.
On Sunday, eight groups of joint local People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) based in the region attacked the village of Tatkone, also in Pauk. Pyu Saw Htee militia there have been heavily armed by the militia. Seven people, including two children, died.
There have been many young victims of the fighting since the coup in February last year.
UNICEF Myanmar reported on June 24, that up to 115 children were killed or injured by Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) in the 15 months from February 2021 to April 2022.