Military government air strikes kill 17 in western Myanmar state

Women and children among those killed and 14 others wounded in air strikes on a village market in Rakhine.

A military air strike by the Myanmar military in Rakhine state has killed at least 17 people and injured 14 others, local media reported, in the latest civil war carnage weeks after a military-backed governing party election win was dismissed as a “sham” by international observers.

Women and children were among those killed when air strikes hit Yoengu village in Ponnagyun township on Tuesday, the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) said.

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

The AA statements listed the names of 17 “innocent civilians”, including three children, killed in the strike. It said 15 people had been wounded in the attack.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has been in political turmoil since the 2021 military coup, with the crushing of pro-democracy protests prompting a nationwide rebellion.

Thousands have been killed, and about 3.6 million people have been displaced, according to the United Nations. The war has provoked armed resistance from democracy activists and ethnic minority factions that have long held sway in the nation’s fringes.

‘Bodies scattered’

Pyae Phyo Naing, chairman of the Ponnagyun Youths Association, described the scene as “really bad”, with four or five buildings burned down.

“Some people were crying, while many dead bodies were scattered over the area,” the 23-year-old told the AFP news agency.

“Some people were running away from the scene as there were also houses still burning when we arrived.”

The western coastal state of Rakhine, formerly known as Arakan, is among the worst-hit regions. Controlled almost entirely by the AA, it has been blockaded by the military and pummelled with regular air strikes.

The military blockade on top of the conflict and recent sweeping cuts to international aid have driven a “dramatic rise in hunger and malnutrition” in the state, the World Food Programme warned last year.