40 people killed as Myanmar’s military bombs village during Buddhist festival: Report
The Myanmar military targeted a village in the country’s central Sagaing region that was celebrating a Buddhist festival. Locals said “20 to 40 people” were killed in the bombing.
At least 24 people, including children, were killed and more than 50 others were injured as Myanmar’s military carried out a paraglider strike on a village, according to a member of a resistance group, locals and media reports.
The attack was carried out on Monday night by a motorised paraglider.
According to reports, the military targeted a village in the country’s central Sagaing region that was celebrating a Buddhist festival that included a rally calling for the release of political prisoners held by Myanmar’s military government.
It was the latest instance of Myanmar's military using paramotors as part of its widening range of aerial weaponry, including aircraft and drones, deployed in an expanding civil war.
What exactly happened?
The attack at Sagaing's Chaung-U township took place just before 8 pm local time on Monday as local residents gathered in a field, the eyewitness and a spokesman for a local anti-junta armed resistance group were quoted by Reuters as saying.
A member of a local resistance group who attended the event said more than 100 people from Bon To and nearby villages had gathered at the village’s primary school compound Monday evening for an oil lamp lighting ceremony to mark the end of Buddhist Lent and to call for the release of political prisoners including Suu Kyi.
A motorised paraglider dropped two bombs at about 7:15 pm, killing an estimated 20 to 40 people, including children, villagers and members of local political activist groups and armed anti-military groups, the resistance fighter told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
"More than 50 others were wounded, including himself," he added.
The resistance fighter said an alert had been issued through a network of mobile phones and walkie-talkies that had tracked the paraglider from the army’s northwestern military command in Monywa, about 25 kilometers (16 miles) north of Bon To village.
Meanwhile, a woman told AFP that people were gathering for the festival and an anti-junta demonstration at around 7:00 pm when the bombs killed more than 40 people and wounded about 80 others.
A local resident who also attended Monday’s ceremony said the crowd began to disperse after hearing reports of an approaching paraglider, but it arrived sooner than expected and dropped bombs while people were still in the school.
The resident, who helped in rescue efforts after the attack, said at least 24 people were known to have been killed, though the death toll could be higher as the victims’ family members and rescue workers worked independently to collect the bodies.
Both witnesses said the paraglider returned to the scene around 11 pm and dropped two more bombs without causing additional casualties.
"The military has used paramotors to bomb this area approximately six times before this latest incident," Ko Thant, an information officer for the Chaung-U Township People's Defence Force, said.
Meanwhile, the human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement, “The sickening reports emerging from the ground in central Myanmar following a nighttime attack late on Monday should serve as a gruesome wake-up call that civilians in Myanmar need urgent protection."
What did the Myanmar military say?
The military has not acknowledged carrying out an attack in the area.
Myanmar has been reeling from a civil war that began after the army seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Much of the country, including the village of Bon To village where the attack took place, is under the control of resistance forces.
More than 7,300 people are estimated to have been killed by security forces since the army’s 2021 seizure of power, according to figures compiled by nongovernmental organisations.
Myanmar's military also uses Chinese and Russian-made combat aircraft and helicopters, but since late last year has stepped up the use of low-tech motorised paragliders in what is believed to be partially an effort to save money.
Resistance forces lack effective defenses against any kind of air attacks.
(With inputs from agencies)