ATTACKS ON CIVILIANS There were reports of rape and other sexual The military used its “Four Cuts” strategy to violence by the military against women and cut off EAOs and People’s Defence Force children in conflict-affected areas. According (PDF) units from funding, food, intelligence to media reports, soldiers gang-raped a and recruits with devastating consequences woman in front of her husband during a for civilians. The military launched air strikes, military raid in Aklui village close to Tedim shelling and arson attacks against towns and township in Chin State in November. The villages in the ethnic states of Kayah, Kayin, victim’s pregnant sister, who lived in the Kachin and Chin, and in the regions of same village, was also reportedly raped. Sagaing, Magway and Thanintharyi. The UN According to the same source, the military Special Rapporteur on the situation of human also raped a 62-year-old woman in Kutkai rights in Myanmar reported that, as of township, northern Shan State. September, 200,000 people had been INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLES’ forcibly displaced in a bid to escape attacks RIGHTS by the military. In May, following assaults by a newly formed As of 9 December, indiscriminate attacks and PDF unit, the Chinland Defence Force (CDF), attacks directed against civilians and civilian the military laid siege to the town of Mindat in objects, primarily by the military, and fighting Chin State using heavy artillery fire and between the military, EAOs and PDFs, had cutting off essential services. According to displaced more than 284,700 people, the UN, around 15 villagers, including a including over 76,000 children. pregnant woman, were used by the military Around 336,000 people were already as human shields and others were trapped internally displaced prior to the military without water or electricity. As clashes takeover. These included 130,000 people between the military and the CDF escalated living in camps in Kachin, northern Shan in October, there were also reports of arson State and parts of the south-east, and more attacks by the military. In the town of than 90,000 people in Rakhine and Chin Thantlang alone, at least 160 houses and states displaced by fighting between the four churches were reportedly destroyed in Arakan Army and the military before late October. hostilities between them ceased in November From May to November, the military 2020. There were concerns about lack of launched retaliatory attacks on villages in humanitarian access to many of the sites in Kayah and Southern Shan states in response which they were living. to attacks by the Karenni Nationalities At least 126,000 Rohingya Muslims Defence Force, a joint PDF and EAO force, remained effectively interned in camps in on police and military facilities in Demoso Rakhine State since violence in 2012. After and Loikaw townships in Kayah State and the coup, local authorities reinstated a Pekon townships in southern Shan State. At directive that further restricted the freedom of least 55 civilians were killed and churches movement of Rohingya communities living in reportedly destroyed during successive northern Rakhine. These communities military attacks in these areas. continued to have very limited access to In December, reports of the killing by the basic services, including healthcare and military of at least 35 civilians in eastern education. The rapidly deteriorating human Kayah State, including four children and two rights situation in Myanmar failed to provide humanitarian workers from Save the an enabling environment for voluntary Children, prompted condemnation by the UN repatriations of Rohingya refugees in Security Council and renewed calls for a Bangladesh who fled atrocities in Rakhine global arms embargo on the Myanmar State in 2016 and 2017. military government. Amnesty International Report 2021/22 265