Artillery Strike On Camp For Displaced People Kills 29 People In Myanmar: Report

An artillery strike on a camp for displaced people in north Myanmar killed 29 people, a local activist with a civil society group told Reuters.

29 killed in an army strike in Myanmar/Representational Image

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An artillery strike on a camp for internally displaced people has killed 29 people in north Myanmar, said rebels on Tuesday, according to AFP. The south-east Asian country has been embroiled in conflict in multiple regions as an ethnic minority armies and a resistance movement fight against military rule after the coup in 2021. 

Those killed in the Kachin state of Myanmar in the army strikes included women, children, and the elderly said a Reuters report quoting local media, an activist, and sources in the area as saying. 

The incident took place close to midnight on Monday, a few kilometres from a military camp run by the Kachin Independent Army, which is in conflict with the country's ruling military, the Reuters report added. 

A well-known local activist with the Kachin Peace Network Civil society group, Khon Ja told the news agency that she had visited the local hospital and was told that 29 people died in the strikes while 59 were injured. 

"The attack happened at midnight. The bomb was too strong ... the village was totally destroyed and disappeared," she told Reuters. 

"Fifty-nine are injured, 29 killed, confirmed by the hospital up to now," she said.

The country's southern regions are currently reeling under floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains which have displaced over 10,000 people and disrupted traffic on the rail lines that connect the country’s biggest cities, reported AP quoting officials and state-run media on Monday. 

Incessant rainfall in the Bago region that began last week caused flooding in the low-lying areas of its capital, Bago township, said a senior official at the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, Lay Shwe Zin Oo.

The official said there were no casualties reported so far but more than 10,000 people had to abandon their homes.