Myanmar airstrike on Rakhine displacement camp kills 12, witnesses say
A rescue worker says a five-year-old was among the dead and 18 were injured when the Byar La camp was bombed on Friday evening.
A Myanmar military airstrike killed 12 people at a camp for people displaced by the civil war in western Rakhine state on Friday evening, witnesses and a rescue worker said on Saturday. CNA, The Hindu and Al Jazeera reported the deaths.
The strike hit the Byar La IDP camp in Ponnagyun township, northeast of the state capital Sittwe. Khine Hein Htet, chairman of the Phyusin Yin Khwin Foundation, a rescue and emergency service, confirmed the toll. He said a five-year-old was among the dead and 18 people were injured. Many residents had lived at the camp for four years.
"They believed the camp was safe, and they sheltered there together. When we arrived at the scene, most of the victims had died in one place," the 24-year-old said. He said the camp was not in a combat area. "We never thought this camp would be targeted."
Chit Su Wai, a 27-year-old shopkeeper, lost her daughter, aunt and mother in the attack. She said the family did not hear the fighter jet before the bombs fell. "All I saw was their bodies scattered in pain," she said. "It has broken our family."
Aung Kyaw Min, a 45-year-old tuktuk driver, rushed to the village where his brother and sister lived when he heard about the strike. Both were dead. The next day he learned his mother had also been killed. His sister, a seamstress, had cared for their mother, and his brother drove a tuktuk like him. Other relatives, including a 10-year-old, were still missing. "My niece and nephews are still missing, I don't know where to find them," he said.
By Saturday the camp was a mass of collapsed bamboo houses, with an overturned vehicle lying among household goods and clothes. Locals had already wrapped the bodies in yellow and red plastic and buried them in makeshift graves.
Myanmar has been in civil war since the military seized power in a coup five years ago, prompting armed resistance from democracy activists and ethnic minority groups. Rakhine is one of the worst-hit regions. It is controlled almost entirely by the Arakan Army, an ethnic minority force, and has been blockaded by the military and hit by regular airstrikes. The ACLED monitor estimates more than 100,000 people have been killed on all sides since the war began.
CNA noted that ASEAN has excluded Myanmar from high-level meetings because it has not made meaningful progress on the bloc's Five-Point Consensus, agreed in April 2021, which calls for an immediate end to violence.
The outlets said it was not possible to reach the Myanmar military for comment on the attack.
Sources: The Hindu, Myanmar airstrike on displaced persons camp kills 12, say witnesses; CNA, Myanmar airstrike on displaced persons camp kills 12; Al Jazeera, Myanmar airstrike kills 12 at displacement camp in Rakhine state.
