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These photos were taken in June 2025, in Aa--- village, T’Ree T’Kaw village tract, Noh T’Kaw Township, Dooplaya District. On April 26th 2025, at 8:20 pm, the SAC conducted an air strike onto Aa--- village and damaged most of the fifty houses in the village. All fifty of the houses had originally been built by the Nippon Foundation. The attack also killed four goats and forced the villagers to flee the village. These photos show some of the villagers’ houses that were damaged by the SAC air strike. [Photos: KHRG]
Noh T’Kaw Township: SAC air strikes and education and health challenges (January to April 2025)
In 2024, a local community-based organisation (CBO) [name censored for security] provided support for local villagers to build a bunker in Ac--- village, Noh Taw Pla village tract[2], Noh T’Kaw Township, Dooplaya District. The teachers at the local high school, run by the Karen Education and Culture Department (KECD)[3], said that this bunker is useful and important for the students. This bunker was built because the villagers saw the news on social media that State Administration Council (SAC)[4] aircraft targeted monasteries and churches, so they were afraid. In 2025, teachers and students had used this bunker twice for self-protection when an SAC aircraft flew over the school area. Some of the self-funded high schools in Noh T’Kaw Township reported that they also needed bunkers.
Since Burma government schools cannot operate regularly as they could before [the February 2021 military coup], the students' parents were worried, and [many] students who were living in SAC-controlled areas in Kya Inn Seik Gyi Township [Noh T’Kaw Township] did not continue their studies. Some of them were helping their parents run their family businesses, while some students who had finished high school found ways to go to Thailand to improve their lives and livelihoods. Some students went to Thailand illegally, but could not find jobs and had to return to their village.
Before the [February 2021] military coup, in Aa--- village, T’Ree T’Kaw village tract, Noh T’Kaw Township, Dooplaya District, there were 50 houses, all of which were built by the Nippon Foundation, and a [Burma government] primary school. The villagers had stayed in those houses, and the children had studied in that school until the military coup [in 2021]. [After the February 2021 coup, the school stopped receiving support from the SAC. Therefore, the villagers started paying the teacher’s salaries themselves.]
In 2025, the [self-funded primary] school was closed due to concerns about [SAC] air strikes. After the school was closed, the villagers re-established the self-funded primary school in a safe place outside the Aa--- village. During the rainy season, the students might face issues related to flooding, and some students might not be able to come to school if it is raining or there is flooding.
On April 26th 2025, at 8:20 pm, unexpectedly, the SAC conducted an air strike onto Aa--- village. Most of the 50 houses in the village were damaged due to the bomb explosions. The explosions hit the houses which the owners had already left, so there were no casualties. The explosions killed four goats owned by a villager named Naw[5] Af---. The villagers who were living in those small houses [the Nippon Foundation houses] had already fled to the jungle [before the air strike], while some had fled to the houses of their relatives. Some of them had built temporary shelters with a tarpaulin in the village [following the attack]. A local village security guard [with no affiliation to the SAC or Karen National Union (KNU)[6]] provided this information.
During January to May 2025, there was no fighting between joint-Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)[7] and People’s Defence Force (PDF)[8] troops against the SAC in Noh T’Kaw Township, Dooplaya District. However, the KNU maintained a brigade office and district office [in the township], while the combined armed groups’ [the KNLA/PDF] maintained a main checkpoint. There were also several mining areas.
From January to May 2025, SAC fighter jets dropped 500-pound bombs at least four times onto places that they considered belonging to their enemy, injuring a number of civilians who were working at one mining site. Fortunately, nobody was killed.
The KNU do not fully control areas in Noh T’Kaw Township located near the SAC army camps. There is ‘Anglo’ [a Burmese dice game], gambling, and other game shops in those areas, and villagers, including elderly people and children, come to play at them. Yaba[9] is sold secretly, so more people from the villages and town consumed it, causing problems with their livelihoods. This led many to incur debt.
In some villages located near the towns which the KNU was unable to fully control, thieves stole rubber latex [from villagers’ plantations], no matter whether it was daytime or nighttime [constantly]. Therefore, the villagers not only faced problems related to inflation, but also faced problems related to thieves. [High levels of theft only made an already bad economic situation worse for villagers].
In March 2025, in Kya Hka Chaw village tract, Noh T’Kaw Township, four thieves were arrested [by KNU village authorities]. During the investigation, they were found to be stealing because of [to support their] drug use and gambling. According to a local authority, those thieves lived in Seik Gyi (Kyainseikgyi) Town, an SAC-controlled area [in Noh T’Kaw Township]. They came to a KNU-controlled area and stole, so [KNU] village tract leaders held court [and decided disciplinary actions].
In Noh T’Kaw Township, when comparing the current situation [2025] to [the situation in] 2024, health care issues and education [access] have improved since military activities have decreased. The villagers feel more comfortable living in the villages because fighting has not happened [during January to May 2025]. However, villagers still have to stay alert for SAC aircraft.
Kruh Tuh Township: SAC air strike killed five villagers and injured 29 villagers (June 2025)
In Ab--- village, Paing Ya village tract, Kruh Tuh Township, Dooplaya District, there was a self-funded middle school with around 90 students. Due to security concerns [raised by local village leaders], instead of studying in the school, teachers instructed students to secretly study in villagers’ houses.
On June 9th 2025, at 1:45 pm, an SAC fighter jet dropped multiple 500-pound bombs and various types of small mortar shells, while a helicopter fired machine guns onto Ab--- village. [As one of the bombs landed on the house where students were studying,] the air strike killed three students, one teacher, and one villager and injured at least 29 people, including 24 students, one 4-year-old child, and four villagers. The villagers who were killed are: U[10] A--- (69 years old), Daw[11] B--- (40 years old), Maung[12] C--- (7 years old), Ma[13] D--- (6 years old), and Ma E--- (8 years old). The air strikes also damaged at least 12 houses owned by villagers. After the attack, villagers with serious injuries sought treatment in Hpa-an and Mawlamyine towns, while those with less severe injuries were treated in nearby villages.[14]
Further background reading on the situation of air strikes in Southeast Burma/Myanmar can be found in the following KHRG reports:
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KHRG received the photo on the right on July 12th 2025, from a KNU township authority in Kruh Tuh Township, Dooplaya District. On June 9th 2025, an SAC fighter jet dropped 500-pound bombs and small mortar shells, while a helicopter strafed Ab--- village, Paing Ya village tract, Kruh Tuh Township, Dooplaya District. The attack killed five villagers and injured at least 29 other villagers, mainly students. The photo shows the bodies of Maung C--- (7 years old), Ma D--- (6 years old), and U A--- (69 years old) before the funeral service. The photo on the left was taken by a KHRG researcher in July 2025, in Ab--- village, and shows the damage caused to a villager’s house by the SAC attack. [Photos: KHRG/Township authority]
Noh T’Kaw Township: SAC air strikes and education and health challenges (January to April 2025)
In 2024, a local community-based organisation (CBO) [name censored for security] provided support for local villagers to build a bunker in Ac--- village, Noh Taw Pla village tract[2], Noh T’Kaw Township, Dooplaya District. The teachers at the local high school, run by the Karen Education and Culture Department (KECD)[3], said that this bunker is useful and important for the students. This bunker was built because the villagers saw the news on social media that State Administration Council (SAC)[4] aircraft targeted monasteries and churches, so they were afraid. In 2025, teachers and students had used this bunker twice for self-protection when an SAC aircraft flew over the school area. Some of the self-funded high schools in Noh T’Kaw Township reported that they also needed bunkers.
Since Burma government schools cannot operate regularly as they could before [the February 2021 military coup], the students' parents were worried, and [many] students who were living in SAC-controlled areas in Kya Inn Seik Gyi Township [Noh T’Kaw Township] did not continue their studies. Some of them were helping their parents run their family businesses, while some students who had finished high school found ways to go to Thailand to improve their lives and livelihoods. Some students went to Thailand illegally, but could not find jobs and had to return to their village.
Before the [February 2021] military coup, in Aa--- village, T’Ree T’Kaw village tract, Noh T’Kaw Township, Dooplaya District, there were 50 houses, all of which were built by the Nippon Foundation, and a [Burma government] primary school. The villagers had stayed in those houses, and the children had studied in that school until the military coup [in 2021]. [After the February 2021 coup, the school stopped receiving support from the SAC. Therefore, the villagers started paying the teacher’s salaries themselves.]
In 2025, the [self-funded primary] school was closed due to concerns about [SAC] air strikes. After the school was closed, the villagers re-established the self-funded primary school in a safe place outside the Aa--- village. During the rainy season, the students might face issues related to flooding, and some students might not be able to come to school if it is raining or there is flooding.
On April 26th 2025, at 8:20 pm, unexpectedly, the SAC conducted an air strike onto Aa--- village. Most of the 50 houses in the village were damaged due to the bomb explosions. The explosions hit the houses which the owners had already left, so there were no casualties. The explosions killed four goats owned by a villager named Naw[5] Af---. The villagers who were living in those small houses [the Nippon Foundation houses] had already fled to the jungle [before the air strike], while some had fled to the houses of their relatives. Some of them had built temporary shelters with a tarpaulin in the village [following the attack]. A local village security guard [with no affiliation to the SAC or Karen National Union (KNU)[6]] provided this information.
During January to May 2025, there was no fighting between joint-Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)[7] and People’s Defence Force (PDF)[8] troops against the SAC in Noh T’Kaw Township, Dooplaya District. However, the KNU maintained a brigade office and district office [in the township], while the combined armed groups’ [the KNLA/PDF] maintained a main checkpoint. There were also several mining areas.
From January to May 2025, SAC fighter jets dropped 500-pound bombs at least four times onto places that they considered belonging to their enemy, injuring a number of civilians who were working at one mining site. Fortunately, nobody was killed.
The KNU do not fully control areas in Noh T’Kaw Township located near the SAC army camps. There is ‘Anglo’ [a Burmese dice game], gambling, and other game shops in those areas, and villagers, including elderly people and children, come to play at them. Yaba[9] is sold secretly, so more people from the villages and town consumed it, causing problems with their livelihoods. This led many to incur debt.
In some villages located near the towns which the KNU was unable to fully control, thieves stole rubber latex [from villagers’ plantations], no matter whether it was daytime or nighttime [constantly]. Therefore, the villagers not only faced problems related to inflation, but also faced problems related to thieves. [High levels of theft only made an already bad economic situation worse for villagers].
In March 2025, in Kya Hka Chaw village tract, Noh T’Kaw Township, four thieves were arrested [by KNU village authorities]. During the investigation, they were found to be stealing because of [to support their] drug use and gambling. According to a local authority, those thieves lived in Seik Gyi (Kyainseikgyi) Town, an SAC-controlled area [in Noh T’Kaw Township]. They came to a KNU-controlled area and stole, so [KNU] village tract leaders held court [and decided disciplinary actions].
In Noh T’Kaw Township, when comparing the current situation [2025] to [the situation in] 2024, health care issues and education [access] have improved since military activities have decreased. The villagers feel more comfortable living in the villages because fighting has not happened [during January to May 2025]. However, villagers still have to stay alert for SAC aircraft.
Kruh Tuh Township: SAC air strike killed five villagers and injured 29 villagers (June 2025)
In Ab--- village, Paing Ya village tract, Kruh Tuh Township, Dooplaya District, there was a self-funded middle school with around 90 students. Due to security concerns [raised by local village leaders], instead of studying in the school, teachers instructed students to secretly study in villagers’ houses.
On June 9th 2025, at 1:45 pm, an SAC fighter jet dropped multiple 500-pound bombs and various types of small mortar shells, while a helicopter fired machine guns onto Ab--- village. [As one of the bombs landed on the house where students were studying,] the air strike killed three students, one teacher, and one villager and injured at least 29 people, including 24 students, one 4-year-old child, and four villagers. The villagers who were killed are: U[10] A--- (69 years old), Daw[11] B--- (40 years old), Maung[12] C--- (7 years old), Ma[13] D--- (6 years old), and Ma E--- (8 years old). The air strikes also damaged at least 12 houses owned by villagers. After the attack, villagers with serious injuries sought treatment in Hpa-an and Mawlamyine towns, while those with less severe injuries were treated in nearby villages.[14]
Further background reading on the situation of air strikes in Southeast Burma/Myanmar can be found in the following KHRG reports: