June 9, 2024
On June 8, 2024, armed groups attacked the villages of Zaw Chaung and Alehkone in Kodaung Township, destroying nearly 200 residential properties. Local residents reported that the armed forces arrived with around 80 troops, setting fire to homes in the area. “The soldiers came from Kodaung, and they started the fire. About 70 houses in Zaw Chaung were burned, and at around noon, they set fire to Alehkone, which suffered even more damage,” a local resident told the Yangon Times.
Residents also stated that the military launched an attack on Zaw Chaung village early in the morning, firing heavy weapons, which resulted in one civilian from Lwin Gyi village, about a mile away, losing a leg from a shell explosion.
On June 3, local defense forces had engaged in a raid on the military’s outpost in Kodaung, and just as they were close to seizing the outpost, the military retaliated with an airstrike, allowing the soldiers and armed groups to escape. A member of the local defense force remarked, “If the aircraft hadn’t come, we could have captured the Kodaung outpost, but we had to retreat after the airstrikes.” On June 6, troops and armed groups set fire to Kaimar village east of Kodaung, and subsequently targeted other villages like Zikanar, Nhoakone, and Show Phu Kone in the west, resulting in over 300 homes being burned. “We can’t approach the area anymore, so our estimates are from afar,” a defense member explained to the Yangon Times on June 8.
Due to the destructive fires set by the military and armed groups, nearly 500 homes across seven villages in the Kodaung area have been destroyed within three days.
