Violence has raged in Myanmar since the military coup toppled the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi nearly two years ago, ending the Southeast Asian nation’s brief democratic hiatus.
Five civilians, including a mother and her child, were killed in airstrikes by the Myanmar army in the southeastern part of the country, a Karen rebel group and a humanitarian organization said Saturday.
Violence has raged in Myanmar since the military coup toppled the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi nearly two years ago, ending the Southeast Asian nation’s brief democratic hiatus.
Four Myanmar Air Force fighter jets dropped eight bombs on villages in Papun district on Thursday, killing five people and injuring four others, the Karen National Union said in a press release.
Members of the Karen ethnic group live in their majority in eastern Myanmar, near the border with Thailand.
The Christian humanitarian organization Free Burma Ranger confirmed this account in the village of Lei Wa, where members of its staff went a few hours after the aerial bombardment.
“Some villagers had returned and showed us the mutilated bodies of five people,” the organization explained in a press release.
“A mother and her child were killed” in the bombing, the organization continued, clarifying that the child was about three years old.
Two priests were also among the dead, according to the same statement, which gave no details about the fifth victim.
“We saw houses that had been damaged by shrapnel (…) and had broken roofs,” the statement added, according to which two churches and a school were destroyed by the bombs.
Villagers fled into the jungle before the airstrikes; the death toll could have been much higher if children were at the school, the NGO added.
A spokesman for the Karen National Liberation Army rebel group told AFP there was a new airstrike on Friday. “We continue to see such incidents because we don’t have anti-aircraft defense systems,” he said.
AFP tried to contact a military junta official for comment. There was no response.
More than 2,700 civilians have been killed in violent incidents since the February 1, 2021 military coup, according to data compiled by a Myanmar non-governmental organization.
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