On Tuesday, April 12, Burma’s military junta confirmed having carried out an airstrike against a village in the center of the country as part of the fight against the rebellion arising from the February 2021 coup. Various sources estimate that the bombing left at least 50 dead, including schoolchildren and other civilians. According to a first responder linked to the anti-coup militia People’s Defense Force, the death toll could be as high as 100, noting that women and children were among the victims.
The attack took place in the remote district of Kanbalu, in the Sagaing region, one of the main centers of resistance to the military regime, where fighting has been raging for months. According to his spokesman, Zaw Min Tun, the action took place during the opening of a local office of the People’s Defense Force, the armed anti-junta groups that proliferated in the country after the military coup. The military spokesman said that some of the victims were anti-coup fighters in uniform but that “there could be some people in civilian clothes” and claimed that some of the deaths were due to “mines planted by the PDF in the area.”
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said he was “appalled” by the action and denounced the attack as a violation of international humanitarian law. In addition, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “strongly condemned the attack” and “reiterated his call on the army to end the campaign of violence against the population.” The United States also declared itself “deeply concerned” by the attack, while the European Union was “deeply dismayed by reports of the latest atrocities committed by the military regime.”
Burma has been torn by violent conflict between the military junta and its opponents since the February 2021 coup that ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Tuesday’s attack, one of the deadliest carried out by the junta, occurred shortly before the days-long celebrations of Thingyan, the Burmese New Year, and has heightened the climate of fear in the country.