SAC Forces Mortar Hpakant IDP Camp — 13-Year-Old Boy Killed While Studying (Kachin State)

Junta forces shelled an IDP camp in Hpakant Township, Kachin State on April 23, 2026 using 60mm mortars, killing a 13-year-old boy — Maung Swut Jet Aung — who was studying in a building within the displacement camp. Additional Grade-4 students sustained shrapnel injuries from a separate shelling incident that also struck a Basic Education High School in the area. The attack follows the SAC's sustained multi-week offensive in Hpakant — where KIA captured 6 SAC frontline positions on April 2, KIA/KPDF drone bombed a junta hilltop on April 11, a KIA landmine ambush killed approximately 40 pro-junta militia on April 19, and KIA announced indefinite road closure on April 23 — representing the junta's documented pattern of indiscriminate fire on IDP camps and civilian populations as collective punishment for KIA military operations. Hpakant Township, Myanmar's jade-mining heartland, hosts hundreds of thousands of displaced persons who fled fighting in and around the mines; the concentration of IDPs in the township makes mortar attacks on populated civilian areas particularly lethal. The killing of Maung Swut Jet Aung while studying continues the SAC's documented targeting of children in educational settings, joining the April 23 Wetlet school drone strike (10 students injured) and the April 15 Dae Bu Noh college bombing (4 civilians killed) as part of a systematic campaign against educational infrastructure across conflict zones.