The Burma Army attacked Kachin Independence Organization/Army (KIO/A) with mortar and artillery fire in Muse District, near the border of China, in Burma’s northern Shan State.

“In the morning, we heard the sounds of heavy weapons. It was very loud and close to our location,” a female school teacher, who requested anonymity, told SHAN.

Tatmadaw—as the Burma Army are locally called—attacked KIO/A Battalion 9, Brigade 6, on Monday, February 22, near Dima village, during clashes that began on Saturday.

On Sunday, a man in the village in Muse Township was killed from shrapnel after a shell landed nearby. An anonymous source told SHAN they were working in their farm when shells were fired. The same day Tatmadaw dispatched reinforcements, stoking fears among residents clashes in the region would escalate.

“After people protested against the military government, they launched the offenses. We’ve already suffered enough,” Sai La from Muse town told SHAN.

Hundreds of thousands across the country have been demonstrating against the military regime nearly everyday since health workers walked off the job spurring the Civil Disobedience Movement.

After KIO/A and several ethnic armed organizations condemned the military regime’s persecution of protesters, fighting erupted in multiple locations in northern Shan State

KIO/A hasn’t signed the country’s Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA). It is part of Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Committee, which also includes Shan State Progress Party, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, Arakan Army, Ta’ang National Liberation Army, United Wa State Party/Army and National Democratic Alliance Army.