A 120-year-old historic Catholic church in Chan Thar village of Ye-U Township, Sagaing Division, and hundreds of residential houses in 4 villages were set ablaze by the Military Council forces, according to locals.

Starting on January 13th, the Military Council troops marched through Tabayin (Depeyin) Township to the western areas of Ye-U. After that, the 200-strong military unit split into two columns and started arson attacks.

“It’s true that the church was set on fire yesterday. There was a church service that day, so everyone saw the arson. But there was nothing we could do about it”, a villager said.

As a result of the arson, the church's worship hall, the priests’ dormitory, nuns’ dormitory, and two other dormitories were reduced to charred ruins. Among them, the nuns' dormitory is a hundred-year-old building.

The large Catholic church, burned by the Military Council troops, was built by the Mandalay Catholic Church in 1894 and is recorded as the oldest church in the entire Sagaing Division.

In addition, the Military Council troops entered Mu Son, Kone Thar, Chan Thar and Ywar Mittha villages and set fire to residential houses.

Chan Thar village with more than 800 houses, has already suffered 3 arson attacks by the Military Council troops previously, and now the entire village has been reduced to ashes, locals said.

In Ywar Mittha, more than 500 out of the about 600 houses were burnt, and Kone Thar village, which had about 400 houses, was almost completely destroyed.

The military unit is a joint force of troops from the Junta Army's 364th Infantry Regiment and 701st Light Infantry Regiment. They also burned down more than 1600 houses in 17 villages in Ye-U Township.

Currently, that military unit has entered the townships of Tabayin, Ye-U and Khin-U alternately and torched the villages, leaving tens of thousands of residents homeless and in need of urgent assistance.