Min Shin Saw, Narinjara News, 22 October 2024

Early on October 21, amid intense combat withAA, junta forces shelled Lone hamlet, which lies close to Ann Town and servesas the base of the junta's Western Command. Junta soldiers entered the villageand set it on fire after the artillery barrage.

According to a displaced person from Lonevillage who talked to Narinjara News, Lone village, which is next to Ann Creekand has 254 dwellings, is the closest village to the junta's Supply andTransport Corps, which is about two miles from the Western Command.

"They started the village on fire afterfiring artillery shells this morning. Over 100 junta soldiers, all from theSupply and Transport Corps, were present. Now the whole community is a pile ofashes. We have not been able to get in touch with the people who stayed behindto take care of their properties yet. They might have been slain, I worry.Since the fight of Nat Taung, many of the village's youth have left," adisplaced resident stated.

The combat between the Arakan Army (AA) and thejunta forces at Nat Taung has resulted in the displacement of nearly the wholecommunity.

Lone village was set on fire by junta soldierswho entered it in the early hours of October 21. It is unclear what happened tothe elderly people who stayed behind to take care of their dwellings.

A local social worker from Ann said she wasdeeply saddened for the people of Lone hamlet, whose homes were set on fire bythe junta troops as they escaped the fighting to take sanctuary with family. 

"They have lost their house. They cannotremain in someone else's home indefinitely. Having a home enables people tolive with their families and work from home, regardless of their financialsituation. Hearing that their homes were torched in this manner isdevastating," he remarked.

Pyaung Chaung and Zar Di Maw, two communitiesclose to the military camp, have also been told to evacuate by the junta'sWestern Command. Residents are therefore afraid that while they are away, juntaforces would infiltrate these settlements and set them on fire.

In addition to losing the war in Arakan andkilling civilians with bombings, the junta is also using its bombardment todamage highways, bridges, temples, pagodas, schools, monasteries, and otherbuildings throughout Arakan State.