A driver for the World Health Organization in Myanmar has been shot dead, his employer said, adding that the circumstances of the killing were not yet clear.

Myo Min Htut was killed on Wednesday night while riding his motorbike home after work in Mawlamyine Township in Mon State, the WHO said in a statement.

“We are all deeply saddened by his tragic death and extend our deepest condolences to the family of our colleague,” the WHO said on Facebook.

However, a local resistance force, the People’s Defense Organization Mawlamyine, claimed responsibility for the killing in a statement released on Wednesday. It alleged that the victim was a regime informer who had blackmailed the families of striking government staff and was a relative of Lieutenant-General Aung Lin Dwe, the secretary of the junta’s ruling body.

The Irrawaddy couldn’t independently verify the accusations.

Deadly clashes have ravaged swathes of Myanmar since the country’s military staged a coup in February 2021.

Almost 2,000 civilians have died in a subsequent brutal crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitoring group.

Myo Min Htut served as a driver for nearly five years, the organization said.

In December, two staff members of international aid group Save the Children were killed in a Christmas Eve massacre of more than 30 people that was blamed on Myanmar junta troops.

Their burnt bodies were found on a highway in the eastern state of Kayah.

Source:
courtesy of THE IRRAWADDY

by THE IRRAWADDY

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