40 civilians reported dead in bombings in Burma

September 8 (EUROPA PRESS) –

At least 40 people, including dozens of children, have been killed in air strikes by the Myanmar air force on schools, markets and camps for displaced people in the past six days, according to rebel militias and human rights groups.

The attacks have occurred in Chin, Shan and Karenni states and in Magwe, Sagaing and Mandalay regions over the past week. On Friday, government aircraft dropped 300-pound (136-kilogram) bombs and machine guns on a school in the town of Lat Yat Ma, an area where there is no active fighting, according to the Irrawaddy news site. Six civilians, including a child, were killed and 10 others were wounded.

Thirteen other civilians, including a child and a pregnant woman, were killed on Friday in Namjam, near the border with China, after two 500-pound (227-kilogram) bombs were dropped. Eleven people were injured and six homes were destroyed.

Earlier, ten civilians, including ten children, were killed and 14 others wounded in a military aircraft bombing a camp for internally displaced persons in Pekon, in southern Shan State. And last Sunday, nine civilians were killed in a bombing raid on a market in Maung Kone, a town controlled by the People’s Defence Forces guerrillas.

The Armed Forces, which have controlled the government since the coup d’état of February 1, 2021, have increased military activity in an attempt to reverse the latest territorial advances of pro-democracy militias and ethnic guerrillas.

The opposition has therefore urged the United States, the EU and countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to impose an embargo on aviation fuel and ammunition to prevent “crimes against the civilian population.”

Meanwhile, the Arakan Army, one of the most powerful rebel militias, announced that the Navy Training Centre in Thandwe, in Rakhine State, has been under its control since Thursday. These are the first Navy facilities to be taken over by the militias.

More than 400 soldiers were killed in the attack, according to the Arakan Army, which seized a significant amount of weapons and ammunition, but this information could not be independently verified.

The military junta was created following a coup d’état on 1 February 2021 to annul the results of the November 2020 elections, in which Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kii’s National League for Democracy (NLD) had won a parliamentary majority.

The uprising marked the beginning of a harsh campaign of repression that left thousands dead and detained, as well as the outbreak of fighting in various parts of the north and west of the country.