About 100 junta soldiers set fire to about 50houses in Zayatkone Village, in Sagaing’s Myaung Township on 29 May.

According to the Civil Defence Security Organization Myaung (CDSOM), the soldiers set fires to Zayatkone Village at 7 a.m. on 29 May.

They then left the village and arrived in Tamasaykan Village, also in Myaung Township, at 10 a.m. the same morning.

The whole village was ablaze and smoking. There was a huge fire and it almost destroyed all of Zayatkone Village. The junta troops set fire to the centre of the village and the blaze spread out very fast. If the junta troops had stayed for longer than an hour our village would have been completely burned down”, said a representative of the CDSOM.

About 40 CDSOM members, People’s Defence force (PDF) members and villagers fought the fire and extinguished it. Zayatkone is a big village of  about 1,000 households. But now, many villagers have been displaced.

A local said: “At first, Junta troops were stationed near to Zayatkone Village. We predicted that the Junta troops would invaded to our village, that’s why we packed our things and waited to see what the situation was. As soon as we heard that the the junta troops were heading to our village, we immediately evacuated to a safe place. We saw Junta troops set fire to Tamasaykan Village.