By AFP
March 15, 2025
An injured civilian being carried following aerial bombardment of Singu in central Myanmar's Mandalay region - Copyright AFP STR
A Myanmar junta airstrike on a village held by anti-coup fighters killed at least 12 people according to a local administrative official, who said the bombardment targeted civilian areas.
Myanmar’s military seized power in a 2021 coup which has plunged the country into a fractious civil war and analysts say the embattled junta is increasingly using air strikes to target civilians.
The Friday afternoon strike hit the village of Letpanhla around 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of the country’s second biggest city of Mandalay.
The village in Singu township is held by the People’s Defence Forces (PDF) — anti-coup guerillas who took up arms after the military toppled the country’s civilian government four years ago.
“A lot of people were killed because they dropped bombs on crowded areas,” said the local administrative official, who asked to remain anonymous. “It happened at the time people were going to the market”.
“We’re currently making a list and have registered 12 people killed,” he said on Saturday.
A junta spokesman could not be reached for comment and AFP could not independently verify the death toll. The local PDF unit reported there had been 27 fatalities.
– Wails of grief –
Witness Myint Soe, 62, said he tried to hide as an aircraft came in for a bombing run.
“I heard huge bomb blast sounds at the same time I was hiding,” he said. “When I came out and looked at the market area I saw it was on fire.”
In the aftermath, buildings which appeared to be homes and a restaurant were ablaze, as people in civilian clothing and camouflage uniforms doused the flames with water.
The limp body of a child with a bloody head wound was loaded into the back of an ambulance by a man whose uniform was marked with the PDF insignia.
Wails of grief could be heard as some of the crowd glanced up towards the sky.
Myanmar is now controlled by a patchwork of junta forces, ethnic armed groups and anti-coup partisans.
The number of military air strikes on civilians has risen year on year during the civil war, according to non-profit organisation Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), with nearly 800 in 2024.
That figure was more than triple the previous year and ACLED predicted the junta will continue to rely on air strikes because it is “under increasing military pressure on the ground”.
“The military will persevere in its indiscriminate aerial attacks on civilian populated areas in an effort to undermine the opposition’s support base and destroy their morale,” it said in December.
An offensive by an alliance of armed ethnic groups in late 2023 inflicted stinging territorial losses on the junta.
But analysts say the Myanmar air force, which operates with Russian technical support, has been key to fending off its adversaries based mainly in the borderlands.
More than 3.5 million citizens are currently displaced and half the population lives in poverty.
UN considering humanitarian channel from Bangladesh to Myanmar
By AFP
March 15, 2025
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press briefing in Dhaka on March 15 - Copyright AFP MUNIR UZ ZAMAN
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said Saturday the organisation is exploring the possibility of a humanitarian aid channel from Bangladesh to Myanmar.
Guterres is on a four-day visit to Bangladesh that saw him meet on Friday with Rohingya refugees, threatened by looming humanitarian aid cuts.
Around a million members of the persecuted and mostly Muslim minority live in squalid relief camps in Bangladesh, most of whom arrived after fleeing the 2017 military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar.
“We need to intensify humanitarian aid inside Myanmar to create a condition for that return (of the Rohingyas) to be successful,” Guterres said during a press briefing.
Guterres suggested that under the right circumstances, having a “humanitarian channel” from Bangladesh would facilitate the return of the Rohingya community, but said it would require “authorisation and cooperation”.
Asked if dialogue with the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic minority rebel group in Myanmar, was essential for the repatriation of Rohingyas, Guterres said: “The Arakan Army is a reality in which we live.”
He acknowledged that in the past relations with the AA have been difficult but said, “Necessary dialogue must take place”.
Guterres added that engaging with the AA was important as sanctions against the group would require the UN Security Council’s approval, which could prove difficult to obtain.
“It’s essential to increase pressure from all the neighbours in order to guarantee that fighting ends and the way towards democracy finally established,” Guterres said.
The UN chief’s remarks came after human rights group Fortify Rights issued a statement urging the Bangladesh government to facilitate humanitarian aid and cross border trade to reach war-affected civilians in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
The AA is engaged in a fierce fight with the military for control of Rakhine, where it has seized swaths of territory in the past year, all but cutting off the state capital Sittwe.
The UN’s World Food Programme said on Friday that it will be forced to cut off one million people in war-torn Myanmar from its vital food aid because of “critical funding shortfalls”.
The upcoming cuts would hit 100,000 internally displaced people in Rakhine — including members of the persecuted Rohingya minority — who will “have no access to food” without its assistance, it said.
Last year, the UN warned that Rakhine faces an “imminent threat of acute famine”.
By AFP
March 15, 2025
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press briefing in Dhaka on March 15 - Copyright AFP MUNIR UZ ZAMAN
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said Saturday the organisation is exploring the possibility of a humanitarian aid channel from Bangladesh to Myanmar.
Guterres is on a four-day visit to Bangladesh that saw him meet on Friday with Rohingya refugees, threatened by looming humanitarian aid cuts.
Around a million members of the persecuted and mostly Muslim minority live in squalid relief camps in Bangladesh, most of whom arrived after fleeing the 2017 military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar.
“We need to intensify humanitarian aid inside Myanmar to create a condition for that return (of the Rohingyas) to be successful,” Guterres said during a press briefing.
Guterres suggested that under the right circumstances, having a “humanitarian channel” from Bangladesh would facilitate the return of the Rohingya community, but said it would require “authorisation and cooperation”.
Asked if dialogue with the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic minority rebel group in Myanmar, was essential for the repatriation of Rohingyas, Guterres said: “The Arakan Army is a reality in which we live.”
He acknowledged that in the past relations with the AA have been difficult but said, “Necessary dialogue must take place”.
Guterres added that engaging with the AA was important as sanctions against the group would require the UN Security Council’s approval, which could prove difficult to obtain.
“It’s essential to increase pressure from all the neighbours in order to guarantee that fighting ends and the way towards democracy finally established,” Guterres said.
The UN chief’s remarks came after human rights group Fortify Rights issued a statement urging the Bangladesh government to facilitate humanitarian aid and cross border trade to reach war-affected civilians in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
The AA is engaged in a fierce fight with the military for control of Rakhine, where it has seized swaths of territory in the past year, all but cutting off the state capital Sittwe.
The UN’s World Food Programme said on Friday that it will be forced to cut off one million people in war-torn Myanmar from its vital food aid because of “critical funding shortfalls”.
The upcoming cuts would hit 100,000 internally displaced people in Rakhine — including members of the persecuted Rohingya minority — who will “have no access to food” without its assistance, it said.
Last year, the UN warned that Rakhine faces an “imminent threat of acute famine”.
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