At least 17 people have been killed in an air strike by Myanmar’s military junta on a village in the central Sagaing region, according to several reports on Monday.
The death toll from the Monday morning bombing on Ohe Htein Twin village in the region’s Tabayin township, also known as Depayin, reported by independent media in Myanmar ranged from 17 to more than 20.
Others reported that the morning attack killed at least 22 students and two teachers and wounded dozens of others.
A member of the White Depeyin People’s Defence Force resistance group fighting against military rule said a fighter jet dropped a bomb directly onto the school, where students from primary to high school levels were studying.
The area is about 115 kilometres northwest of Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city.
The resistance fighter, who rushed to the site of the attack to help the victims, spoke on condition of anonymity because he was afraid of being arrested by the military.
He said that 20 students and two teachers were killed in the attack on the school, which is operated by the country’s pro-democracy movement, and some 50 others were wounded. Three nearby houses were also damaged.
Nay Phone Latt, a spokesperson for the opposition’s National Unity Government, said he received the same information on the number of casualties and warned the death toll could rise.
The organisation is the main opposition group coordinating resistance to military rule.
Sagaing region, near the border with India, has been a stronghold of armed resistance and the military in recent years has stepped up air strikes against the local pro-democracy People’s Defence Forces.
The resistance has no effective defence against air attacks.
No comment from the junta
Neither the military government nor state-controlled media have released any information about the reported air strike.
The junta has increasingly used air strikes to counter a widespread armed resistance against its rule, which began in February 2021 when it seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
More than 6,600 civilians are estimated to have been killed by security forces since then, according to figures compiled by non-governmental organisations.
In September 2022, aerial attacks by the military’s helicopters against a school and village in Let Yet Kone village in the same township killed at least 13 people, including seven children.
Air strikes in April 2023 killed as many as 160 people, including children, who were attending a ceremony held by opponents of army rule outside Pazigyi village in Sagaing region’s Kanbalu township.
Air strikes in Myanmar garnered increased attention recently when numerous reports deemed credible by the United Nations and human rights groups said that they continued to be carried out in the wake of the devastating 28 March earthquake, after which the military and resistance groups declared ceasefires to facilitate relief efforts.
