Humanitarian aid groups in Karen State’s Myawaddy Township told DVB that 2,919 residents of Laykaykaw town, who fled their homes and are now staying at seven informal Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps along the Thaungyin (Moei) river, are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance on Friday.
“We’d like donors to provide us medicine, electrolytes and construction materials,” an aid worker told DVB on the condition of anonymity. Laykaykaw is located seven miles (11 km) south of Myawaddy, along the Burma-Thailand border, and 89 miles (143 km) east of the Karen State capital Hpa-An.
Sources on the frontline in Myawaddy told DVB that the fighting between regime forces and the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) over the control of Laykaykaw continued over the weekend.
A Laykaykaw resident, who is now staying at an IDP camp, told DVB that they could hear the sound of artillery fire but the fighting hadn’t reached the camps along the riverine border.
A KNLA source told DVB on the condition of anonymity that both sides have suffered casualties but no figures have been shared. New military conscripts have been sent to Karen State to reinforce regime positions. The conscription law was enforced on Feb. 10, 2024, which requires males aged 18 to 35 and females aged 18 to 27 to serve for at least two years.
The source added that regime forces, supported by artillery fire from positions in Thingan Nyinaung village, have been attacking the KNLA in Laykaykaw with at least two “suicide” drones–Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) that detonate upon impact–per day since Sept. 29.
Thingan Nyinaung is located 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Laykaykaw. It was recaptured by the military on Sept. 6. A regime counteroffensive to retake control of Laykaykaw began on Sept. 22.
Frontline sources told DVB that the military wants control of Laykaykaw to retake regime outposts along the road between Laykaykaw and Wawlay Myaing town. The Thebawboe outpost, located in southern Myawaddy between Laykaykaw and Wawlay Myaing, was seized by the KNLA on June 3.
A resident of Minlatpan in Laykaykaw told DVB that the village school was damaged in a drone attack on Sept. 29, but no casualties were reported. “Our village has been attacked by drones eight times. We’re too scared to sleep.”
Aid workers in Myawaddy told DVB that around 4,000 residents who fled their homes and have been living in an IDP camp along the Thaungyin (Moei) River still cannot return home since the regime recaptured the Myawaddy–Kawkareik stretch of the Asia Highway on Sept. 6.
Karen State has a total of seven townships with the first phase of the regime elections scheduled to take place on Dec. 28 in the state capital Hpa-An, Myawaddy, which is located 81 miles (130 km) east of Hpa-An, and Thandaunggyi, which is located 245 miles (394 km) north of Hpa-An.
Pro-regime armed groups, including the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF), have pledged support for the elections in the territory under its control in Karen State. The KNLA’s political wing the Karen National Union (KNU), has rejected regime elections and were designated a “terrorist” group by Naypyidaw in August.
