Artillery strike kills three Muslims, injures 10 others in Buthidaung

By Admin 04 May 2024

DMG Newsroom
4 May 2024, Buthidaung

Three Muslims were reportedly killed and at least 10 others were injured after an artillery shell hit a high school in Buthidaung, Arakan State, on Saturday afternoon.

The casualties were reported after a mortar shell hit the No. 1 Basic Education High School in Buthidaung, a local resident said.

“I don’t know which group fired the mortar shell. Three Muslims were killed and some were seriously injured,” the resident added.

Hundreds of Muslims displaced by the fighting between the military and Arakkha Army (AA) from three villages are currently taking refuge at the school.

Local people including Muslims have fled to safer locations due to the ongoing fighting between the military and AA in Buthidaung Township. Junta soldiers and their allied Muslim militiamen remain in Buthidaung town, locals said.

“Thousands of local people have fled to safer locations since the fighting in Buthidaung. The regime provided military training to Muslims and torched several homes. Locals dare not stay in Buthidaung,” said a displaced person.

The AA has accused the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), Arakan Rohingya Army (ARA) and Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) and their allies of burning down homes belonging to Arakanese people and other ethnic groups in Buthidaung.

The  regime and armed Muslim men have torched hundreds of homes as well as an office and pharmacy of the international aid organisation Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Buthidaung town on April 15.

The AA is stepping up assaults on junta battalions and military camps in an attempt to capture Buthidaung, with the military responding to the AA’s attacks with airstrikes and shellings.