Civilian suffering in northern Shan State continues to deepen as renewed airstrikes, landmine explosions, and displacement claim more lives and leave dozens injured across Kyaukme, Hsipaw, Namtu, and surrounding townships this week.

On October 11, a military jet dropped two bombs on Tor Sang village in Kyaukme Township, one landing near a Shan State Progress Party (SSPP) camp and the other exploding inside the village.

A child was injured, and several homes were damaged during a recent airstrike in Tor Sang.

“The bombs hit the village around one-thirty. One landed right beside the SSPP camp and the other inside Tor Sang, wounding a child,” a resident told SHAN.

The attack came amid a new wave of aerial pressure across Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA)-controlled territory in Kyaukme, Mong Lon, and Mong Ngaw, forcing villagers to flee or hide underground. Aid workers say entire towns are now facing food shortages as supply routes remain cut off by fighting.

While air raids devastate towns, returning residents in former battle zones face the hidden terror of landmines.

In Nawng Pyit village, Kyaukme Township, 40-year-old Nang Hom lost her leg on October 10 after stepping on a mine while preparing her small plot of farmland. Her house had already been destroyed in previous clashes.

“People find one or two mines every day near their homes,” a neighbor said. “We are afraid even to walk outside.”

At least four people have been killed and four others injured by landmines in the Nawng Ping tract in the past month alone, according to community volunteers. No mine clearance operation has yet been carried out, despite repeated pleas from returning villagers.

In Lashio town, where more than 3,000 displaced civilians are now sheltering, a 13-year-old girl from Hsipaw succumbed to illness on October 9 at Lashio General Hospital. Her parents had died earlier, and aid workers from the Freedom Youth Organization arranged her care and burial.

“She was brought for treatment but didn’t survive,” an aid volunteer said quietly.

On September 4, U Ma Lar, aged over 60, from Pin Tein village in Kyaukme Township, also died at Lashio General Hospital from a chronic illness worsened by shrapnel wounds sustained during earlier fighting.

Lashio’s monasteries and churches are now housing thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Namtu, Kyaukme, and Hsipaw, most of whom fled recent bombardments. Local groups warn that food, blankets, and medicine are running dangerously low.

As fighting intensifies ahead of the junta’s planned December election, ordinary families in northern Shan State remain trapped between air raids, landmines, and deepening poverty.