PONNAGYUN, Myanmar: A Myanmar military airstrike on a camp housing people displaced by the civil war killed 12 people in the westernmost state of Rakhine, witnesses and a rescue worker said on Saturday (Nov 14).
Chit Su Wai, a 27-year-old shopkeeper, sobbed as she described how her daughter, aunt and mother were killed on Friday evening in Byar La IDP camp in Ponnagyun township, northeast of state capital Sittwe.
“All I saw was their bodies scattered in pain. I could not find words to describe it. And we were lost with crying,” she said.
“It has broken our family. There were no others except my family. We did not hear the sound of the fighter jet – it just came and dropped the bombs.”
Myanmar has been consumed by civil war since the military staged a coup five years ago, provoking armed resistance from democracy activists and ethnic minority factions that have long held sway in the nation’s fringes.
The western coastal state of Rakhine is among the regions worst hit by the war. Controlled almost entirely by the ethnic minority Arakan Army (AA), it has been blockaded by the military and pummelled with regular airstrikes.
It was not possible to contact the Myanmar military for comment on the latest attack.
Chit Su Wai said 12 people died in Friday’s attack, a toll confirmed by Khine Hein Htet, chairman of the Phyusin Yin Khwin Foundation, a rescue and emergency service.
Khine Hein Htet said a five-year-old was among the dead, while 18 were also injured in the camp, where many residents had been living for four years.
“They believed the camp was safe, and they sheltered there together. When we arrived at the scene, most of the victims had died in one place,” the 24-year-old said.
He said it was not a combat area, adding: “We never thought this camp would be targeted.”
