According to a witness, a member of a local pro-democracy group, and independent media, as many as 100 people, including many children, were killed by airstrikes on Tuesday while attending a ceremony held by opponents of army rule in a village.
Airstrikes are being used by the military more and more to stop the armed struggle against its rule, which started in 2021. Forces are estimated to have killed over 3,000 civilians since then. The UN's head of human rights said he was "horrified" by reports of air strikes on a Sagaing community hall. It seems schoolchildren performing moves, as well as different regular people, were among the people in question," Volker Turk said.
An official from the fictitious National Unity Government, which claims to be Myanmar's legitimate government, and an emergency worker at the scene claimed that the attack in Sagaing Region resulted in the deaths of at least 30 children. It was expected that more people would die.
Byar Kyi, a local resistance soldier who was helping to recover bodies at the site, said, "This is a war crime." They did not attack a military target location.
After a military jet and helicopter bombed and strafed the largely civilian gathering, rescue workers described a horrifying scene in Pazigyi Village in the southern Sagaing Region, where body parts were scattered over a large area. Social media posts from the village showed more than a dozen burned and mutilated bodies, and videos showed a burned-out building, motorcycles, and debris all over the place.
A celebration to mark the opening of an administration office by the local resistance movement was the apparent target of the attack. After the air raid, as evidenced by video and photographs, the building was only left standing with its charred frame.
Since its independence in 1948, the military of Myanmar has waged numerous brutal attacks on civilians, battling armed ethnic groups for control of the country. The most united resistance movement the military has faced since the coup has been formed by pro-democracy forces joining forces with some armed ethnic groups in a national campaign to remove the military from power.
The military has intensified its strategy of carrying out deadly air raids and attacking civilians in response to the rebel forces' growing arsenal, including the killing of monks and civilians at a monastery last month.
At least 80 people were killed when military jets attacked a concert in Kachin State in October, including musicians who were on stage at the time. A lot of Sagaing District in the northwestern piece of Myanmar, lining India, is a renegade fortification where the tactical's ground powers have experienced issues acquiring an area. " According to the National Unity Government's human rights minister, Aung Myo Min, "the regime has increased its military budget, and airstrikes are increasing." With their blood, the people of Myanmar are telling the world about the brutal war crimes committed by the military.
At least 100 people had been identified as dead, according to the emergency responder, and many more were still missing. 53 intact bodies had been discovered, according to Aung Myo Min, and recovery efforts were continuing.
Human rights advocates reiterated their call for an end to the sale of aviation fuel to the regime following the attack on Pazigyi Village. The survivors of the attack, according to Byar Kyi, a soldier with the local armed group Kyun Hla Underground Force, informed him that a combat helicopter and a jet fighter carried out the assault. Russia has been a significant benefactor of such arms to the junta, notwithstanding its proceeding with battle in Ukraine.
He stated that although the majority of the victims in Pazigyi Village were civilians, a few of them were local resistance fighters who had come for the celebration. He stated, "The pile of dead bodies contains many children and women."