LAIZA, Myanmar (Burma) — Myanmar military airstrike leaves over 30 people dead, including 13 children at a refugee camp in the northern city of Laiza, Kachin.
At least 30 are feared dead including children in a military attack on a refugee camp for the internally displaced persons. The attack happened in northern Myanmar in Laiza, Kachin state, near the border with China.
The attack, which took place at around 11.00 P.M. local time on Monday night, left over 60 people injured.
The artillery attack hit the IDP camp killing at least 30 people in one of the fatal strikes on civilians since the inception of military rule.
Myanmar has been entangled in a deadly conflict in several areas since 2021 coup. Both the ethnic minority armies as well as a minority formation fighting to sabotage military rule following a fatal crackdown operations by the military forces.
Writing on an X account, formerly called Twitter, Aung Myo Min, the human rights minister of the National Unity Government (NUG), condemned the strike as a “war crime”. “Some 56 people had been injured. The NUG was established by democratically-elected politicians removed from office in the coup,” said Aung Myo Min.
“The attack on the Mung Lai Hkyet displacement camp in the northern part of Laiza, a town where the headquarters of the rebel Kachin Independence Army is based, also wounded about 60 people,” said a spokesperson for Kachin Human Rights Watch on Tuesday.
“19 adults and 13 children from the camp were killed by the airstrikes, which occurred around 11 p.m.,” added the spokesperson
“We strongly condemn this inhumane killing. This action causes resentment among the Kachin people,” he said.
The attack is yet to owned by the military forces. The Monday night’s strike comes just countable days before the commemoration a peace agreement the former military-driven government alongside the eight ethnic rebel formations. The capital Naypyitaw, was earmarked venue for the eighth anniversary celebrations.
“Houses in the camp are very closed to each other, so the situation is totally messed up,” adding that the attack was only the latest of the military’s “inhumane acts,” said one of the victims.
“We are still trying to figure out what had happened on the ground. We are capable of attacking any headquarter of the armed insurgency groups but we don’t do this kind of attack,” said Gen Zaw Min Tun, a junta spokesperson while denying military involvement in the attack.
Edited by Judy J. Rotich and Newsdesk Manager
