19 April 2026 By Nway
HPAKANT, Myanmar — A three-year-old boy from a displaced family and an adult male were killed as Myanmar military forces launched heavy artillery strikes on residential areas in Hpakant Township, Kachin State, over the weekend.
The latest casualty, a toddler, died early Sunday morning when a shell fired from a military outpost on Myauk Kone Hill, Lonkhin Village, struck Malan Village. Witnesses reported that the child was hit directly in the chest by shrapnel and died instantly.
“The little boy was part of a family that had already fled conflict elsewhere to seek safety in Malan,” a local military source told MPA. “They were looking for sanctuary, but the war followed them. The shrapnel from the shell proved fatal.”
This follows another fatal strike late Saturday night. At approximately 10:30 PM, artillery fired from the main military tactical base in Hpakant hit Saing Aung Village. The blast, which struck near a traditional Kachin cultural site at a major intersection, killed a man in his 30s. He reportedly suffered severe injuries to his lower abdomen and succumbed to his wounds.
Funeral services for both victims were held this morning. Despite the lack of active ground combat on Sunday, the atmosphere in Hpakant remains extremely tense. Troops have reportedly been deployed at the Lonkhin jade market intersection and near a prominent pagoda hill in Mawsisar.
The mining district has seen a surge in violence since April 2, when renewed fighting broke out between the military junta and allied forces of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Kachin People’s Defence Force (KPDF). Resistance forces have recently successfully captured several military outposts in the area.
The shelling is part of a broader pattern of reported military violence in the region. On April 15, residents discovered the bodies of four people—one resistance fighter and three civilians—abandoned near a fuel station in the Mashi Kahtaung ward of Hpakant. Locals allege they were executed by military troops.
As the conflict intensifies in northern Myanmar, civilian casualties from indiscriminate shelling continue to mount. For the thousands of displaced families in Kachin State, the tragedy in Malan Village highlights a grim reality: in the current civil war, even the most remote villages offer little protection from the reach of heavy artillery.
