YANGON: Myanmar's military junta and opposition forces are fighting over control of a lucrative trade route into Thailand, with shells and aerial attacks regularly forcing children to flee their schools, teachers and a parent told AFP.
Kyondoe town has for two months seen fierce fighting between junta troops and guerilla groups attempting to capture highway access to a Thai border crossing 50km to the east.
Myanmar has plunged into a many-sided civil war since the military snatched power in a 2021 coup, with much combat focused on trade routes which groups can use to bolster their war chests.
A teacher who works in Kyondoe town, in the eastern state of Karen, said she fled her school on Wednesday after hearing the sound of nearby shelling.
"I have no idea which side is shooting. It scares us a lot," she said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
She said she has been commuting to Kyondoe from a camp for those displaced by fighting which has flared since mid-April.
"Some residents still send their children to schools. If they hear more fighting sounds, artillery sounds, plane sounds, they come to the schools to pick up their children," she said en route to the camp.
"If fighting sounds are far away, schools keep teaching. Children are used to hearing the fighting sounds. It's very sad," added the teacher, who intends to go back to her school.
"I have to come to serve my duty although I'm really scared."
A military officer said fighters from anti-coup and ethnic armed organisations were pounding Kyondoe and another nearby town on the same highway with artillery captured from the junta.
"As they are targeting the towns, local military columns are resisting by fighting back," said the officer on Tuesday, also speaking on condition of anonymity.
"We are also sorry for the residents and school children," the officer added.
"We will try our best to protect the towns."
Myanmar's military has pledged a truce throughout this month to ease recovery efforts after March's magnitude-7.7 earthquake which killed nearly 3,800.
However, it has told its myriad opponents it will defend its ground against any offensives.
"I'm really sick of fleeing. My children can't go to school because of fighting," said one resident who has been forced to quit Kyondoe to shelter in a nearby monastery.
"I went back to the town a few days ago as I heard there was less fighting. Soon after we arrived, we had to flee again," they said, speaking on condition of anonymity on Tuesday.
Children make up nearly 40 per cent of the more than three million people displaced amid Myanmar's civil war, according to Uniecef.
They also frequently fall victim to the violence. A junta air strike on a school in May killed 22 people, including 20 children, according to witnesses.
Opposition fighters in central Myanmar claimed Tuesday they shot down a junta jet on a bombing run, while the military said it had crashed on a practice flight owing to engine failure.
"We want fighting to finish soon," said a teacher from a village on Kyondoe's outskirts on Tuesday, explaining they were recently forced to shut their school.
"We have been hearing artillery fire, gunfire exchanges and air strikes often these days," the teacher added, explaining that monsoon floods make it impossible to dig shelters.
"We have no place to hide." - AFP
