A new report from the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) reveals a sharp increase in violence against women and children in southeastern Myanmar.
The latest issue of HURFOM’s quarterly Voice Up series, covering July to September 2025, documents worsening conditions across Mon State, Karen State, and the Tanintharyi Region. According to field data collected by the group, 18 women were killed, 53 injured, and 28 arbitrarily arrested during this period. At least 15 children were killed and another 27 were wounded.
Many of these attacks occurred in areas with no active fighting, pointing to what the report describes as the military junta’s deliberate and indiscriminate targeting of civilians.
One of the most tragic incidents took place on September 8 in Yar Phu village, Yebyu Township, when artillery shells struck civilian homes. A three-year-old girl, Ma Ngwe Hmone Oo, was killed instantly. Her mother, who survived, expressed her devastation, stating, “It’s devastating to realize how wrong our decision was. Everyone else had left the village, but we stayed. Now I have lost my daughter. I feel like I’m going crazy without her.” The girl’s father was arrested by soldiers later that evening and remains in detention.
The report details numerous cases of women and children being trapped in their villages during artillery barrages, airstrikes, and mortar attacks. Displaced families, in particular, are suffering the brunt of the violence.
Despite the ongoing crisis, the report notes that women continue to courageously provide eyewitness accounts of the abuses. It concludes by stressing that the gendered impact of the junta’s violence is severe and must not be overlooked by the international community.
