United Wa State Army (UWSA) soldiers march during a media display in Pansang, Wa territory in northeast Myanmar October 4, 2016. Picture taken on October 4, 2016. -- REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun
PEKON, Myanmar (AFP): Hundreds of Myanmar families were being uprooted from their homes on Saturday, a community organiser said, piling their belongings onto evacuation convoys to escape fighting between the military and anti-coup guerrillas.
Myanmar has been consumed by a many-sided civil war since the military snatched power in a 2021 coup, leaving more than 3.5 million people displaced according to United Nations figures.
Heavy combat has been raging since Monday around the village of Saung Nang Khae in the eastern state of Shan, according to locals and evacuation organisers.
Ramshackle convoys of tractors were piled with livestock, wheelchairs and suitcases on Friday as they hauled local families to temporary shelter in the village of BC Kone some 60 kilometres (40 miles) southwest.
On Saturday Khun Pyae Linn, the spokesman of the youth wing of the Kayan New Land Party which controls the enclave and which organised evacuation efforts, said "rescue operations are still ongoing".
"We evacuated more than 600 people but there were other organisations that helped villagers too. So it could be over 1,500 villagers that were moved to safe shelters," he added.
The military and some of its adversaries had pledged a truce this month as the country recovers from March's devastating magnitude-7.7 earthquake which killed more than 3,700 people.
But Anyne Zel, 24, said she had been forced to flee as artillery and air strikes pounded her home area -- the second time she has been forced to evacuate in two years.
"I want to ask them to stop the war. Every time they fight the victims are us, the civilians," she said on Friday. "I don't even think about the future of our lives anymore."
After four years of war, Myanmar's military has turned to conscription to bolster its ranks after suffering stinging territorial losses against the myriad of anti-coup fighters and ethnic armed organisations opposing its rule.
But analysts say it is still far from defeat, with a superior array of military hardware supplied by its backers China and Russia.
Lone Phaw, a 63-year-old farmer, said the onslaught of fighting in Saung Nang Khae was so sudden that he and his wife abandoned their home with only a single piece of clothing each, some blankets, pots and a bag of rice.
"We only had time to run when it happened," he said. "We can't guess what our future holds." - AFP
