Ongoing SAC attacks along Chinese pipelines in northern Shan State kill ten, injure fourteen civilians

Update by the Shan Human Rights Foundation

January 23, 2024

Ongoing SAC attacks along Chinese pipelines in northern Shan State kill ten, injure fourteen civilians

Between December 19, 2023 and January 11, 2024, ten civilians were killed and fourteen injured during SAC attacks in Namtu, Hsipaw, Kyaukme and Nawngkhio townships of northern Shan State, where SAC aerial bombs and shells have landed dangerously close to China’s oil and gas pipelines.

The majority of civilian casualties were in Namtu township, where SAC launched airstrikes and artillery attacks on the main town and outlying villages during the last week of December, but failed to prevent the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) from seizing control of the township on December 28, 2023.

On December 23, SAC troops at the LIB 324 base shelled indiscriminately into Quarter 3 of Namtu town, injuring four civilians and damaging a mosque and five houses. On December 25, further SAC shelling injured a 19-year-old woman in the town, and a SAC jet fighter bombed Quarter 3, killing two civilians. Another airstrike on Quarter 5 on December 29 injured a further two civilians.

SAC airstrikes also targeted villages along the pipelines in southern Namtu township where no fighting was taking place. On December 29, an airstrike on Mann Li village – 200 meters west of the pipelines — killed a woman and damaged a temple. On January 5, at 3 pm, an airstrike on Mann Hsar village – about 400 meters east of the pipelines — damaged twelve houses. And on January 10 at around 4.30 pm, another airstrike on Mann Li village damaged a school and thirteen houses.

The ongoing airstrikes made many villagers too afraid to stay in their homes, leading to the deaths of four other civilians in Namtu in the first week of January. On January 4, a 35-year-old villager from Man Jarm died of high blood pressure while hiding in the jungle, and at midnight the same day, a male villager from Mann Dee and his two daughters, aged 3 and 12, died when the makeshift bunker where they were sheltering collapsed.

Other civilian casualties in Namtu included a male villager shot and injured by SAC troops when riding his motorbike to seek shelter in Lashio, and another male villager who was injured from stepping on a landmine laid by the SAC next to their base in Namtu.

During the same time period, SAC also launched air and artillery attacks in other townships along the pipelines.

On December 19, a SAC airstrike on Hu Gyut village, northwest of Kyaukme town, injured three civilians and damaged twenty houses. On December 31, a SAC airstrike on Mong Ngaw town, north of Kyaukme, damaged ten houses. TNLA announced they had seized Mong Ngaw town on the same day.

In the evening of December 28, SAC troops at their IB 23 base, on the northeast edge of Hsipaw town, and at the Hsipaw Bridge outpost south of the town fired about 10 artillery shells at Nam Hoo Noi village, about five kilometers west of the town. The shells landed in and around Nam Hoo Noi temple, which was sheltering about 200 local villagers, who had been sleeping there each night since the outbreak of fighting between TNLA and SAC forces in the area in November. The shelling damaged several temple buildings, but fortunately no civilians were injured. The shells were fired over a distance of seven kilometers along the path of the pipelines, landing about 700 meters from the pipelines. There was no fighting in the area at the time.

On January 10, SAC aircraft dropped bombs on the villages of Pang Ner and Kunsanglek about six kilometers northeast of Hsipaw town, damaging Pang Ner temple. Pang Ner village lies about 200 meters southeast of the pipelines. There was no fighting in the area at the time, and the bombing was apparently aimed at deterring TNLA troops from attacking the nearby SAC LIB 503 and LIB 504 bases.

Two farmers were also injured by SAC landmines laid near the pipelines in Hsipaw. On January 3, a farmer looking for a missing buffalo stepped on a SAC landmine planted west of the road from Da Dae village (about 10 kms northeast of Hsipaw town) to Moe Tay bridge over the Namtu river. The pipelines run 300 meters west of this road, close to a construction camp for the Chinese-backed Namtu dam. On January 9, a 63-year-old farmer from Tong Chang village (on the northern edge of Hsipaw town) looking for his cattle stepped on a landmine laid by the SAC near their IB 23 base, about 700 meters from the pipelines.

On January 11, at about 1 pm SAC troops based at Ohm Mark Dee village, about 20 kms southwest of Nawngkhio town on the Mandalay-Muse highway, fired shells at Thonze village, killing three civilians (a man, a woman and a four-year-old child) and damaging five houses. Ohm Mark Dee lies about 600 meters east of the pipelines, and the shells were fired across the pipelines.

The ongoing attacks along the pipelines are continuing to fuel local fears of possible pipeline explosion and catastrophic damage.

Detailed list of civilian casualties and damage from SAC airstrikes, shelling, landmines and shooting in each township

Namtu township

Hsipaw township

Kyaukme and Nawngkhio townships

Contact:

Sai Hor Hseng             66 99 246 5673/   66 94 728 6696      Signal  (Shan, English)

Ying Leng Harn                66 99 289 6080                                          Signal (Burmese)

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