An eight-year-old child was killed by a junta artillery shell in Kyauktaw Township, Rakhine State at 11:05 p.m. on 25 September.

When the artillery shell hit a house in Nagayar Village in Kyauktaw Township. Maung Gyi, an eight-year-old sheltering in the house was hit with shrapnel in his left arm and died as a result of his wounds because he could not be got to a hospital on time due to the junta blocking all routes out of the area.

The shell was fired by the Military Council’s Operation Control Command No.9 unit which is based in Kyauktaw Town.

A Nagayar villager said to Mizzima: “The shell fired by Operation Control Command No.9 hit a home in Nagayar village. The explosion claimed the life of a youngster. The home was constructed of bricks. They [the people living there] thought it would be safer living with three or four families in that house. The house's roof was where the shell entered.”

Another villager claimed that because the junta had blocked all the roads and canals around the village the injured child could not be got to a hospital in time and as a result, died from his wounds.

“We took the child to a village nurse. She said that the youngster ought to be taken to a hospital. We planned to send him to the hospital. But, the Military Council's troops shut down all access to waterways and land routes [to get out of the area]. So, we took the child to a clinic in a nearby village. Finally, the child passed away at 1 o'clock at night,” said a third villager.

The junta has been randomly firing weapons at night in Kyauktaw Township, according to a Kyauktaw resident who spoke to Mizzima.