Myanmar: at least 30 people killed in attack on camp for displaced people

At least 30 people, including young children, have been killed in an attack on a camp for displaced people in Myanmar’s Kachin state, according to media reports and a local activist.

Dozens more were injured in the attack, which happened at about 11.30pm on Monday night in Kachin, Myanmar’s northernmost state, it was reported. On social media, unverified images showed men carrying victims, including a small child, from rubble in the darkness.

A Kachin activist based in Laiza, who spoke anonymously, told the Guardian that 33 people had been killed, including 13 children. A three-month-old baby was among the children killed, she said.

She added that the death toll could rise further because the area was very large and volunteers were still recovering bodies. The homes in the camps were built on mountains, she added, and so houses had become buried under the soil.

“Houses in the camp are very closed to each other, so the situation is totally messed up,” she said, adding that the attack was just the latest in the military’s “inhumane acts”.

“There are many cases like this, this is not the only case,” she said.

The attack took place at Mong Lai Khet IDP camp, a few kilometres from a military camp run by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), one of many groups fighting against Myanmar’s military junta, which seized power in 2021.

The area, near the border with China, has seen frequent armed clashes over recent months. The UN has warned of limited humanitarian access in Kachin State and many other areas of the country, describing a dire level of need.

It was unclear whether Tuesday’s attack was the result of heavy artillery or an airstrike.

The military has frequently been accused of striking civilian sites, including hospitals, schools, religious sites and civilian homes. Last year the military killed 60 people, including musicians and children, in an airstrike that targeted a concert in Kachin.

Kachin Independence Army could not immediately be reached for comment.

Khon Ja, a well-known local activist with the Kachin Peace Network Civil society group, told Reuters she had visited the local hospital.

“The attack happened at midnight. The bomb was too strong … the village was totally destroyed and disappeared,” she said.

The attack took place on the same day that Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations, Kyaw Moe Tun, told a UN committee that, since the coup, the military has imported more than $1bn worth of arms and raw materials for a “scorched-earth policy that has murdered more than 4,000 civilians including women and children, forcibly displaced around two million and destroyed or burnt down over 75,000 homes.”

Kyaw Moe Tun – who has remained loyal to the civilian government and does not represent the junta – cited data from researchers that indicated there was an average of 30 airstrikes a month in Myanmar from January to June this year, and urged member states and the Security Council to impose comprehensive arms embargos against the Myanmar military.

“No word can adequately convey the suffering endured by the people of Myanmar. It is an unspeakable tragedy,” Kyaw Moe Tun said.

Since seizing power in February 2021, the military has faced determined opposition from an armed resistance, which includes both armed groups that formed after the coup, and larger, established armed groups such as the KIA.

The KIA, which has fought against the military for decades, has offered sanctuary to protesters, politicians and others fleeing military abuses, and has trained fighters from newer groups that oppose the coup.

Mong Lai Khet IDP camp has existed since 2011 when a ceasefire agreement between the KIA and the military, collapsed. It has grown in size since the 2021 coup, however, as growing numbers have been displaced.

The conflict has forced 2 million people to flee their homes, an unprecedented number in the country, according to the UN, caused soaring poverty and the collapse of education and health services.