Source: www.barnabasfund.org
Date: April 14, 2020
Seven villagers were killed and eight injured when mortar fire from military aircraft hit a village in Christian-majority Chin State, Myanmar (Burma) on 7 April.
The dead included a three-year-old child. Three men and three women aged between 22 and 39 were also killed in the strike on Nanchaungwa. The village in Paletwa Township is in the same area where 21 Christian villagers were killed in airstrikes in mid-March.
In the latest attack, villagers heard gunfire coming from an area about a mile away in the morning. Later that afternoon, two military aircraft began firing near the village, and at least four mortar shells struck local homes, setting them on fire.
“Many villagers were hiding under houses hit by artillery fire from the planes … That’s why many were burned and injured and others killed,” said a local witness.
The injured were first taken to Paletwa public hospital, while efforts were made to move the more seriously wounded to a medical facility that had a surgeon on staff. More than 180 villagers fled to a neighbouring village and took shelter in religious buildings.
Over the weekend of 14 and 15 March, a total of 21 villagers were killed and dozens injured when military jets opened fire on four majority Christian villages in Paletwa Township, causing about 2,000 residents to flee to a nearby town.