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KHRG received these photos from a local villager on July 27th 2025. They were taken in A--- village, Way Htoo village tract, Daw Hpah Hkoh Township, Taw Oo District. On July 5th 2025, SAC soldiers burned down 39 houses and two motorbikes in A--- village, owned by local villagers, after clashes with PDF troops. The four photos on the first and second rows show villagers’ houses, completely burned down by the SAC soldiers. The two photos on the third row show two villagers’ motorbikes, destroyed by the SAC troops’ arson attack. [Photos: a local villager]
Fighting, house burning, and displacement
On the morning of July 4th 2025, more than 150 State Administration Council [SAC][2] soldiers from an unknown battalion travelled to Way Htoo village tract[3], Daw Hpah Hkoh Township, Taw Oo District, to conduct a military operation [to remove armed resistance groups’ activities and control from the area]. These SAC soldiers encountered the People’s Defence Force [PDF][4] Battalion #3504 near A--- village, Way Htoo village tract, while they were travelling. Then, a skirmish happened between the SAC and PDF. Local villagers from A--- village fled to their plantations and forest nearby, for their safety during the skirmish. After the skirmish, the PDF retreated from where the skirmish took place. Then, the SAC soldiers entered into A--- village [and stayed overnight]. [A--- village is the closest village to the area where the skirmish between the SAC and PDF took place.]
At around 10 am on July 5th 2025, [before leaving the village,] the SAC soldiers set fire to 39 houses in A--- village, all of which were owned by local villagers. Most of the houses were completely burned down. A few of the houses were not completely burned down, but many of the things inside these houses were destroyed by the fire. Two villagers’ motorbikes were also burned down. Only four houses in A--- village were not set on fire. [Villagers believed the SAC carried out the arson attack because they thought the villagers had connections with the PDF. Villagers believed that the SAC troops returned to their army base after the attack.]
According to a displaced villager from A--- village whose house was burned down: “On the day [of the incident], we [the villagers] were organising a funeral [in the village]. We were also preparing food at the funeral. When fighting happened, villagers fled to the nearby forest and plantations as they were afraid to stay in the village. Villagers could not bring anything with them when they fled. They could not even bring their extra clothes and cooking materials, such as pots and plates. Now, we do not have homes to return to. We are also afraid to stay in the village because we are afraid of SAC soldiers.”
After this attack, the villagers in A--- village faced [livelihood] difficulties and challenges because they had lost their houses. As villagers lost their houses and were afraid to return to their village, they built small huts and makeshift shelters in their plantations and in the forest near A--- village. The displaced villagers received rice and old clothes from other villagers [in Way Htoo village tract]. However, these support items were not enough for the displaced villagers. [At the displacement site, villagers were facing issues getting enough food, essential items, and proper shelter, including mosquito nets, hygiene, and medicine.] Elderly people and young children got seasonal flu at the displacement sites. The displaced villager said: “The most important thing is food. We need food to eat.”
The villager also reported that the displaced did not receive any support from any humanitarian or healthcare organisations. The children from A--- village had been unable to go to school since the school in the village was closed after the 2021 coup. [This primary school was formerly run by the Burma government and closed after the coup because the Burma government teachers stopped travelling to the village.] [As of October 2025, some villagers were living at the displacement site, and some often travelled back to the village to check on their property and houses.]
[Before this incident,] on December 11th 2024, the SAC had conducted a drone attack in A--- village, killing a villager and damaging some villagers’ houses.[5] Then, on January 2nd 2025, SAC soldiers [from an unknown battalion] arrested a villager in his house in A--- village [after a skirmish] and killed him later [that day]. After killing the villager, the SAC put his dead body back inside his house.[6]
This information was provided by a local villager from A--- village whose house was burned down, and another villager who attended a VAW [Village Agency Workshop] training, provided by KHRG [who knew about the incident and contacted the KHRG researcher about it]. [These villagers witnessed the incident and know about it.]
Further background reading on the situation of arson attacks in Southeast Burma/Myanmar can be found in the following KHRG reports: