Myanmar Junta Kills 471 Civilians in 552 Airstrikes Since Quake

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The Irrawaddy

 

Mandalay — Myanmar’s military junta has launched over 550 airstrikes since a deadly earthquake struck central Myanmar in March, killing at least 471 civilians — including 72 children — according to figures released by the exiled National Unity Government (NUG).

 

The aerial assaults, carried out between late March and June, have struck nearly every region except Yangon and the military capital Naypyidaw. Despite public claims of a ceasefire to facilitate earthquake relief, the junta has intensified its air campaign, prompting accusations of war crimes.

 

The March 28 earthquake devastated parts of the Sagaing and Mandalay regions, leaving an estimated 5,000 dead and countless others injured. While survivors still struggle to rebuild amid monsoon rains and power outages, the military’s air raids have turned quake-hit communities into war zones.

 

The NUG, which operates in opposition to the junta, documented 552 airstrikes that left 931 civilians wounded. One of the deadliest recent incidents occurred on 9 June in Karen State, when a fighter jet dropped cluster munitions on a small village school, killing three children aged six to eight, a teacher, and another civilian.

 

“These attacks are not random. They are systematic assaults on civilian life,” the NUG said in its latest briefing. It called for urgent deployment of modern air-raid alert systems and bomb shelters, particularly in areas controlled by resistance forces and ethnic militias.

 

Cluster bombs — banned under international law by 111 countries — have reportedly been used repeatedly, despite Myanmar not being a signatory to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The deliberate targeting of schools and non-combatants violates international humanitarian law and is prosecutable as a war crime.

 

Catholic leaders in Mandalay have also spoken out. “People are helpless and defenceless,” said Father Peter Sein Hlaing Oo, vicar general of the local archdiocese. “They do not know where to seek refuge.”

 

At the United Nations, Myanmar’s envoy U Kyaw Moe Tun reported that 3.5 million people are now displaced within the country, and over 20 million, including 6.3 million children, urgently require humanitarian aid.

 

Four years after the 2021 military coup, Myanmar is in free fall — its skies no longer just a battleground, but a constant threat to civilian life.

 

-2025-06-25