Regime fighter jets bombed another village in Demawso Township, Karenni State, where civilians fleeing earlier attacks by the military regime in Pekon in southern Shan State had arrived a day earlier.

According to local sources, two bombs hit Lober Hko on Sunday afternoon, damaging several houses but fortunately resulting in no deaths or injuries. A woman who spoke to Kantarawaddy Times said that the roofs of her father’s and brother’s houses were destroyed.

Banyar, director of the Karenni Human Rights Group (KHRG), said people were traumatised by the attack immediately after arriving in the village and are now looking for somewhere else to find shelter.

”The Burma Army (BA) is attacking civilian villages with artillery and launching airstrikes while preventing food rations from being transported to Karenni State” by blocking entry points into the state, he said. To prevent the suffering that could lead to famine, the international community must provide humanitarian assistance to the IDPs (internally displaced persons) and the population of Karenni State.

A week ago, the regime killed two civilians, including a doctor, in Nam Maekhong in western Demawso Township, where no fighting has been reported but where civilian resistance fighters are based. On 17 January, fighter jets killed three IDPs, including two children, in Rekee Bu camp in Hpruso Township. And on Christmas Eve, the BA massacred at least 35 civilians who were trying to flee the fighting in the township. Some of the people who managed to escape ended up in the Rekee Bu camp until it was air bombed and they were forced to flee again.