Myanmar: An alleged airstrike by Myanmar’s military has reportedly killed several students in Rakhine state, according to an ethnic minority armed group and local media. The victims, aged between 15 and 21, were attending two private schools in a village in the western state of Rakhine, as stated by the Arakan Army (AA) and various local media outlets.
According to Deutsche Welle, the airstrike targeted the Pyinnyar Pan Khinn and A Myin Thit private high schools in Kyauktaw, which lies 250 kilometers southwest of Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city. Local online media reported that 22 students were killed when a junta warplane allegedly dropped two 500-pound bombs on one of the schools just after midnight on Friday. The information, however, remains unverified due to limited communications in the region, and the military has yet to announce any attack in the area.
The UN’s children’s agency, UNICEF, condemned the incident, describing it as a “brutal attack” that contributes to a pattern of escalating violence in Rakhine State, where children and families are bearing the brunt of the conflict. Myanmar’s military continues to face accusations of targeting civilian communities as it attempts to quell uprisings following the ousting of the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021. Since the coup, more than 7,200 people are estimated to have been killed by security forces across the country.
Rakhine, formerly known as Arakan, has a history of conflict; a severe military counterinsurgency operation in 2017 led to approximately 740,000 minority Rohingya Muslims fleeing their homes to seek refuge in Bangladesh.