Twenty-Six Civilians Killed in Myanmar Junta Airstrikes
In Arakan state, 17 civilians — among them women and children — were killed and 14 more injured after strikes struck Yoengu village in Ponnagyun township on Tuesday, according to the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB). The village sits approximately 33 kilometers (21 miles) northeast of Sittwe, the Arakan state capital seized by the Arakan Army — an ethnic Rakhine armed faction — in March 2024.
A Ponnagyun resident, speaking to DVB under the condition of anonymity, cautioned that the death toll could climb further given the critical condition of several of the wounded.
"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 simultaneous assault hundreds of kilometers away, nine civilians — including two children — were killed and five others wounded in the northwestern Sagaing region. DVB described the attack as a paramotor strike executed by the military. A resident of Myinmu township recounted that two paramotors dropped three bombs on a gathering of locals who were using a Starlink device to access the internet.
The bloodshed reflects an unrelenting cycle of military violence that has gripped Myanmar since the February 2021 coup that toppled the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy. The takeover thrust the nation into over four years of emergency rule, which formally ended last July. The country subsequently conducted elections across three phases between December 28 and January 25.
Since the coup, rights monitors estimate more than 6,000 people have been killed and nearly three million displaced amid the ongoing conflict between the military junta and opposition forces — a toll that continues to mount with each successive strike.
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