A junta army column of about 100 soldiers burnt down 130 houses in Hnawkan Village, in Sagaing Region’s Pale Township at about 1:00 p.m. on 3 April, according to locals.

According to a resident, the soldiers burned down 130 out of 300 houses in the village. An 80-year-old disabled woman trapped in the fires died and a 70-year-old man was also injured.

Locals also explained that Hnawkan Village is a farming community and that the junta army had set fire to and destroyed most of the tractors and agricultural tools and machinery in the village.

“Local resistance forces cleared the area after the army troops left the village. We later returned to our village to find that our homes had vanished because they had been burnt to ashes in fires. The sound of sobbing, cursing, and sadness filled the air because half of the entire village was destroyed. About 130 houses were burned down”, said a Hnawkan villager.

About 15,000 locals from 10 nearby villages, including Hnak Pyaw Taw, Inn Kan, Kyay Ninn, Sin Shin, Kyauk Phyar Kan, Min Taing Pin, and Thabyay Kan, fled to safer places when Hnawkan Village was attacked.

According to a statement by the Pale Township Administration, it has provided humanitarian assistance to the victims of fire in Hnawkan Village and it has also urged people to help by urgently providing the victims of the fires with essential necessities.