This content was originally published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now being reprinted with permission.
As men in the Karenni National Defense Forces, or KNDF, struggle to stop them as a result of a decline in weapons products, the coup has been carefully advance along the eastern edge of Pekon Lake. This is in response to an increase in attacks, including from more developed drones.
According to Aung Zay Ya, the deputy chief of the charitable group Karenni Free Burma Rangers, he assisted in the treatment of the village’s patients. He provided videos and photos to confirm the injury. The young girl’s family members may remain heard crying over her body.
In recent days, coup forces have forced the eviction of numerous families in the area. Aung Zay Ya, FBR people, and KNDF men have aided people in fleeing.
The day before the deadly strike, people from Phuk Khe, 10 meters ( 6 miles ) south of Mine Pyat, began to make the slow walk on the state’s rough, hilly roads by motorcycles, truck and tractor after an ordnance attack there. No one was injured in the attack.
KNDF soldiers have been occupying the area for months, but military forces are attempting to remove them. But these power is scattered. Although innovative forces have large stretches of land, they have not been able to completely expel military forces. Main highways remain disputed.
For many, the offensive could n’t come at a worse time. Families had to make the hard choices of harvesting crops or facing the defense, who might be reluctant to target civilians if the KNDF is unable to stop the progress. Most people, according to volunteers, chose to leave.
KNDF at growing risk
The military’s purpose, KNDF officials said, is to secure access to a road that leads into the principal northern artery into Loikaw, the investment of Karenni position.
The State Administrative Council, the junta’s official title, has retained control of Loikaw and a key regional airport. The junta has faced widespread opposition to its rule, which includes rebel groups in several regions of Myanmar, since it ousted the civilian government in a coup on February 1, 2021.
Although the battles that are currently taking place in what is now Shan state are taking place, the area was once a military dictatorship’s territory. As a result, the KNDF has taken the lead in the fight against the junta there.
Military personnel were attacking from bases on the front lines, both from the south and the north. The KNDF Battalion 31 commander, who declined to be identified for safety reasons, claimed his soldiers have been defending their positions for two months. But his troops are at a growing disadvantage, he said.
New drones from China can drop stronger bombs without the interference of KNDF jammers, as previous iterations were.
The diminishing supply of ammunition is perhaps more troubling. Although the largely civilian force was founded months after the 2021 military coup, bullets have recently been scarce due to the junta’s tight supply routes, making it now easier for KNDF soldiers to get assault rifles than it was when it was established.
Three soldiers who were assisting the evacuation reported to RFA that they had nine bullets in their possession.
Latest disruption to civilians
After three years of fighting, villagers appeared to bear the most recent disruption to their lives with a surprising level of equanimity. Already, there are thought to be more than 150, 000 internally displaced persons living in Kayah state.
Than Aye, 54, sat quietly among several bags of freshly harvested rice transported in a KNDF truck in the shade of a massive banyan tree. She claimed that she and her husband made the decision to leave after an airstrike the day before. She said, a broad smile under her straw hat, that this was the fifth time they had been forced to move since the coup.
In Phuk Khe, Seng Pan Song, 30, was considering how he might be able to save his corn crop as he prepared to leave the village. If he could n’t return in 15 days, it and the money he invested in it would be lost.
He continued, saying he had plenty of rice bags to bring his family to a new location. He was a firefighter in Nang Shwe before the war, but he joined the workers ‘ movement known as the Civil Disobedience Movement after the military reclaimed control of a civilian-led government, arresting many of its top leaders.
” I do n’t want to live under the military system”, Seng Pan Song said.
Many of the villagers who left had large sacks of recently harvested rice, some of which had been stacked up in truck beds and others with their motorcycles in unsafe positions.
Packing up base camp
A contingent of about 12 Battalion 31 soldiers were removing the remains from a KNDF base camp earlier on October 31. A small contingent of village chickens were hunted with a net by soldiers as they removed a solar panel. For upcoming meals, at least six were put in a small bag.
Supplies are priceless here without the KNDF’s control over the main roads, and nothing can go waste.
The commander said Pa-O National Organization forces, a pro-junta paramilitary group, were helping the military. Since the military attack began a few months ago, his battalion has suffered more than 100 casualties, with five killed. He claimed that an airstrike had caused injuries to five of his troops the night before.
The commander claimed to have sold Karenni hot dogs to local tourists before the war. It’s a life he says he’d like to return to.
But as his troops were running out of ammunition, he too was unmistakably upbeat as he watched soldiers under his command pack up the last of their equipment. Of the back and forth of the fight against the junta, he said,” I’m used to it”.
