A military attack on a camp for internally displaced persons in northern Myanmar resulted in 29 fatalities and numerous injuries, a spokesman for an ethnic rebel group in charge of the region said AFP on Tuesday.
As it strives to crush opposition to its 2021 coup, Myanmar’s military has been charged with conducting out numerous violent strikes on civilian targets.
The most recent assault took place on Monday night about 11:30 p.m. (1700 GMT), according to Colonel Naw Bu of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).
“We found 29 dead bodies including children and older people… 56 people were wounded,” he said, adding they were investigating what kind of strike had hit the camp.
“We did not hear any aircraft,” he noted, saying they were looking into whether the military had used a drone to target the camp near the town of Laiza, on the Chinese border.
Images from the local media purportedly depicting the strike’s aftermath showed rescuers searching among wooden rubble by torchlight for bodies.
At least ten victims were visible on the ground, spread out on towels and tarpaulins.
42 patients, who were being treated at a hospital close to Laiza, a city in Kachin state, according to Colonel Naw Bu.
The military is “investigating” the reports, according to Zaw Min Tun, a spokesman for the Junta.
Without providing any supporting information, he said that the military had concluded that an explosion had been triggered by a rebel bomb cache nearby.
The United Nations office in Myanmar said it was “deeply concerned” by reports civilians had been killed in the strike.
“IDP camps are places of refuge, and civilians, no matter where they are, should never be a target,” it said.
The British embassy in Yangon said it was “appalled by reports of a Myanmar military strike” that killed civilians.
An AFP reporter in Laiza reported hearing artillery fire throughout the day on Tuesday.
Later, a mass funeral for the strike victims was conducted by villagers and KIA soldiers.
Christian hymns were sung by the congregation while wooden coffins were buried.
Before an excavator moved earth over the graves, some family members sobbed and placed floral wreaths.
Since the military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s administration in 2021, more than 10,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Kachin state.
According to the local monitoring organization Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), the coup provoked massive protests and a deadly crackdown on dissent that resulted in tens of thousands of arrests and more than 4,100 deaths.
