Junta forces burn down a village in Myanmar

Yangon (dpa) 14 December 2021 -  A village in the north-western Sagaing region was burned down on Monday after it was shelled by junta forces, according to local media and resistance activists in the area.   
Some 100 junta soldiers entered Kaebar village in the Ayardaw township on Monday morning, prompting villagers to flee in fear of arrests and killings.   
The soldiers torched people’s homes, reducing some 100 houses to ash as no one came to extinguish the fire.   
“They came into the village by shelling and the villagers ran into the forest. Then they burnt the houses,” according to a statement from a local defence force in the Ayardaw township.   
“They started to burn around 9:30 in the morning and they left the village in the afternoon,” it said.   
A witness told dpa, “Before they entered the villages, they shelled the artillery and we the villagers ran away. They burned our homes. We could not stop the fire in time.” 
Fighting continues between junta forces and local civilian groups, with Sagaing among the areas most affected.
The military in the South-East Asian country staged a coup on February 1, ousting civilian head of government Aung San Suu Kyi and plunging Myanmar into chaos and violence.