Two-year-old girl killed, two others hit by artillery in restive northern Myanmar
The shots were reportedly fired in Pu Wang village in northern Shan state, an area bordering China
A two-year-old girl was killed and two children injured on Saturday after their village was hit by heavy artillery in Myanmar’s rebel-held north, an activist and local resident said, the latest violence to threaten the new government’s peace bid.
The shots were reportedly fired in Pu Wang village in northern Shan state, an area bordering China where ethnic minority rebels are locked in a long-running battle with the Myanmar army.
Sporadic clashes in the region have displaced tens of thousands of people and dampened enthusiasm for a peace push driven by Myanmar’s newly elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
“It happened in the morning today [Saturday] when these three children were playing. Six powerful shots were fired into the village,” Ying Sau, a pastor in the ethnic Kachin village, said.
His nephew’s two-year-old daughter was killed, while two children, ages five and six, were injured and taken across the border to a hospital in China, he said.
Khon Ja, an activist from the Kachin Peace Network, also reported the death and posted photos on Facebook of the injured children receiving treatment in China’s Yunnan province.
Both blamed the heavy firing on the Myanmar army, which AFP could not reach for comment.