Myanmar junta airstrikes kill 359 civilians in 4 months

Myanmar junta airstrikes killed over 359 civilians, including 61 children, and injured 756 others in the first four months of 2024, according to a recent report.

Civilian casualties from junta airstrikes have risen sharply since the 2021 coup, increasing from 63 in 2021 to 260 in 2022 and 613 in 2023, reported Nyan Lin Thit Analytica, which monitors regime atrocities.

Regime shelling and airstrikes occurred daily across Myanmar from January to April, the report stated. It recorded 819 airstrikes during the period, averaging at least six per day.

Rakhine State faced the most frequent attacks with 187, followed by Sagaing Region with 119.

Junta airstrikes destroyed 50 religious buildings, 38 schools, and 11 health centers in the four months, the research group reported.

The report also found six alleged uses of chemical weapons by the regime in several regions.

A military analyst predicted an increase in airstrikes as junta ground forces lose more territory. The airstrikes aim to prevent revolutionary forces from establishing peace and stability and to disrupt civilian life, he said.

Since the February 2021 coup, the report documented 2,471 airstrikes by April 30, 2024, resulting in at least 1,295 deaths.

Meanwhile, an international effort is going on to find an enduring and sustainable solution to the crisis.

"Australia supports life changing work, delivered by trusted partners, including UN Refugee Agency, World Food Programme and UN migration agency," said Australian Senator Penny Wong on X.

Earlier on Friday, the UN human rights office said that an estimated 45,000 Rohingya reportedly fled to areas near the Bangladesh border amid the ongoing fighting.

"We are receiving frightening and disturbing reports from northern Rakhine State in Myanmar of the impacts of the conflict on civilian lives and property. Some of the most serious allegations concern incidents of killing of Rohingya civilians and the burning of their property," spokesperson Liz Throssell told a UN press briefing in Geneva.

The majority of Rohingya living in Bangladesh fled a brutal military crackdown in Rakhine, Myanmar in 2017. Most are housed in overcrowded camps in Cox's Bazar, but since late 2020 over 33,000 have been relocated to the island of Bhasan Char.