Landmine kills 4 children in Myanmar’s Bago region

Four children died when a landmine exploded as they played in a field in Myanmar’s central Bago region, residents told RFA Thursday.

They said the mine went off in Phyu township’s In Pin Thar village on Tuesday, killing five-year-olds Poe La Pyae, Wa Than Moe and Nga Pauk, and 12-year-old Aye Chan Maung.

Six-year-old Htein Lin and 50-year-old Min Naing were injured in the blast.

“Right at the top of In Pin Thar village, there is a small library,” said a resident who didn’t want to be named for fear of junta reprisals. 

“The children were hit while they were playing behind the wall where there are bushes and a drinking water pot.”

The local said junta troops often enter In Pin Thar village which is about 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) from their base in Hpa Yar La Har village

He said the landmine was planted and left behind when the junta troops were last in the village, but RFA has not been able to confirm this independently.

RFA’s calls to the Bago region junta spokesperson, Tin Oo, went unanswered Thursday.

Myanmar’s youngsters continue to be the victims of indiscriminate shelling and landmine blasts.

On July 22, three people, including a 12-year-old child, were critically injured when a junta shell exploded in a village in Bago region’s Kyauktaga township, according to locals.

The fighting is also leading to an increasing number of internally displaced people. Nearly 100,000 residents of eastern Bago have fled their homes since the Feb. 1, 2021 coup, according to the United Nations Office for the Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.