Karenni soldiers take shelter inside a drainage ditch as a mortar shell explodes close by during heavy clashes on April 16, 2023, in the village of Daw Nyay Khu, in Kayah (Karenni) State, eastern Myanmar (Burma). Two years after Myanmar plunged into civil war, the country’s military has increasingly taken drastic measures to destroy the uprising–with a heavy toll on the civilian population. In April this year, an airstrike by the junta killed 168 men, women and children. Last year the military struck a school with attack helicopters, killing several children. In the same month, an aerial bombing of a concert killed about 50 people.