The area saw intense clashes between the RCSS and SSPP, but locals do not know which group left the landmine.

A 19-year-old farmer suffered injures after a landmine exploded in his paddy field in Ner Makhaw village tract in northern Shan State’s Hsipaw Township this week.

The incident occurred on May 20 in Tonkeng village while Sai Ann was working in rice paddy field. He was hospitalized in Hsipaw.

“He injured his [lower] legs, his back and his thighs,” a local member of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) told SHAN. “His situation is not critical. Local CSOs [civil society organizations] and the SNLD party have provided assistance to him.”

In recent months, the Ner Makhaw area saw intense clashes between two Shan ethnic armed organizations, the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) and the Shan State Progress Party (SSPP). Thousands of people fled the village tract due to the fighting.

“I don’t know which armed group planted the landmine. I don’t know whether they forgot to remove it or if they just left it here. The two Shan forces had clashed in this area earlier this year,” a villager from the Ner Makhaw area told SHAN.

The RCSS and SSPP withdrew from the area after they released a joint ceasefire statement on May 11. Locals are now calling for the removal of landmines from the region, so that it is safe for them to travel and grow crops.