Children among 17 killed after military bombing of Myanmar school

Bangkok, (EFE).- At least 17 people died, including several children, after the Myanmar army bombed a school Monday in the Sagaing region, a civil society organization told EFE on the ground in an event also reported by independent local media and the democratic opposition.

This source told EFE that the death toll is “likely” to rise, while local media such as Myanmar Now put the death toll at about 30 and the National Unity Government, which declares itself the country’s legitimate authority after the 2021 coup, said that “there are children among the dead and wounded.”

According to independent local media, the bombing occurred Monday at about 10am local time (3:30am GMT) in the township of Depeyin, in the northern Sagaing region, the epicenter of the earthquake that killed more than 3,700 people on Mar. 28, and for which the military junta declared a ceasefire until May 31.

The Committee of Representatives of the Union Assembly for the area, the exiled government, said on its X account that there were two bombings against the school that killed “dozens of students and two teachers and injured many others.”

The organization “firmly” condemned the “continuous bombings against civilians” by the junta, which has held power since the coup, and called for international cooperation to “put an end to the military regime and its brutal acts.”

Last week, the military junta announced a new truce until May 31 in the conflict it is holding with ethnic and pro-democracy guerrillas. The goal is to continue reconstruction efforts following the devastating earthquake centered in Sagaing, which shook the country in late March.

Sagaing is one of the rebel strongholds in Myanmar, where guerrillas have gained ground against the army since the military uprising.

The United Nations, the pro-democracy opposition – which also declared a similar cessation of hostilities after the disaster – and several ethnic minority guerrilla groups have accused the junta of carrying out hundreds of attacks despite the ceasefire.

The coup ended a decade of democratic transition and intensified the guerrilla war that the country has been experiencing for decades. Amnesty International states that the conflict in Myanmar has escalated in the last year and that the army is launching an “indiscriminate, disproportionate, and deadly” offensive against the rebels.