Two children and a one-year-old baby were killed by a concealed landmine in Lashio Township in northern Shan State.

The children from Hko Kham in Pan Hto Lane village tract were playing on the morning of 5 March when the explosive device detonated in the middle of the village, injuring eleven people, including other children.

A 40-year-old man from Mong Yaw area told SHAN that some of the children’s hands were seriously injured in the blast.

Sai Awng Lane, the infant, Sai Yon Kham, 6, and Nang Hseng Awng, 8, were killed.

Three civilians, including a five-year-old, all of them displaced by conflict, were killed after accidentally stepping on a landmine between Wan Lon Tat and Pan Nang in Mong Yaw area on 17 February. They were on their way back from their village to a camp for displaced people where they went to pick up some things.

The Burma Army (BA) and ethnic armed organisations are known to lay landmines in the area. Recently, the BA fought with the Northern Alliance in the Mong Yaw area.