Airstrikes kill at least 26 civilians in Myanmar’s Arakan, Sagaing regions

ISTANBUL

Myanmar’s ruling military junta carried out airstrikes that killed at least 26 civilians and wounded 19 others in western and northwestern parts of the country, local media reported Wednesday.

In Arakan state, 17 civilians, including women and children, were killed and 14 others injured when airstrikes hit Yoengu village in Ponnagyun township on Tuesday, the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) reported.

The village lies about 33 kilometers (21 miles) northeast of Sittwe, the Arakan state capital, which was captured by the Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine armed group fighting the military, in March 2024.

A resident of Ponnagyun, who spoke to DVB on condition of anonymity, said the death toll could rise because some of the injured were in critical condition.

“We are trying to find out the names of the victims,” the resident said, adding that at least five houses were burned in the strikes.

In a separate attack in the northwestern Sagaing region, nine civilians, including two children, were killed and five wounded in what DVB described as a paramotor strike by the military.

A resident of Myinmu township said two paramotors dropped three bombs on a site where locals were using a Starlink device to access the internet.

Clashes between ethnic armed groups and Myanmar’s military have intensified since the February 2021 coup that ousted the elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy.

The takeover plunged the country into more than four years of emergency rule, which officially ended last July. Myanmar also held elections in three phases between Dec. 28 last year and Jan. 25.

More than 6,000 people have been killed and nearly three million displaced in fighting between the military authorities and opposition groups since the coup, according to rights monitors.