SW News: As Myanmar is marking 18 months since the military’s seizure of power of the country, Catholic villagers in Monhla in Sagaing region were once again forced to flee their homes on July 17 following fresh airstrikes and artillery shelling by government troops.

It was reported that there was a military raid on a nearby village too. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Monhla village including priests and nuns in the central Sagaing region fled into the nearby jungle and other safe areas on motorcycles and small trucks.

Ucanews quoted one of the villagers as saying that on Monday, July 18, the junta flew in three helicopters over several villages including Monhla. However, the extent of casualties and damage caused to homes, a convent, and the church still remain unknown.

Meanwhile, following the exodus, Archbishop Marco Tin Win of Mandalay, under which comes Monhla and other historic villages inhabited by the Bayingi Catholics, said, “I am deeply disheartened to learn about the suffering of thousands of people, especially from villages including Catholics whose homes were burned, properties looted and who have become homeless, displaced and in dire need of food and shelter.” The Bayingi Catholics are descended from Portuguese explorers who settled in the region in the sixteenth century and married local women. The community is rich in vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

Though the 60-year-old bishop hasn’t made any mention of the military junta or the State Administration Council, he has requested the parties involved in the attacks “not burn and destroy civilian homes” and instead to “respect their properties”.

As the military regime is specifically targeting the three Catholic villages of Sagaing repeatedly, the archbishop also raises concern over missing and people who were killed.

Myanmar is in the grip of a nationwide grapple, a multi-fronted civil war between the junta troops and armed separatists in several states, especially ones where Christians are a sizeable majority.