At least 29 people are dead after an artillery strike on a camp housing internally displaced persons in northern Myanmar near the Chinese border, according to sources in the region.
News outlets say the attack occurred late Monday night in the town of Laiza, which is controlled by the Kachin Independence Army, the military arm of an ethnic group that has been fighting the Myanmar army for greater autonomy for decades. Local media outlets reportedly showed images of several bodies laid out along the ground, as well as rescuers digging through rubble to recover more bodies.
The sources blamed the attack on the ruling military junta, which overthrew the elected civilian government of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. A spokesman for the regime told a Myanmar news outlet that the military was not responsible for the attack, according to a report by Reuters news agency.
The United Nations office in Myanmar says it is “deeply concerned” about the initial reports of civilians killed in the attack in Kachin state, including women and children. “IDP camps are places of refuge, and civilians, no matter where they are, should never be a target,” the statement said.
The military did claim responsibility for an airstrike on a village in northwest Myanmar back in April that killed 50 people during a ceremony by the People’s Defense Force, the military arm of the National Unity Government, a shadow government made up of members of the ousted civilian government. Another 50 people were killed in a similar attack last October in northern Kachin state during a concert put on by the KIA.
Myanmar has been in chaos since the 2021 coup. A recent report by the U.N. high commissioner for human rights says more than 4,000 civilians have been killed at the hands of the military and its affiliates, while nearly 25,000 more have been arrested.
The unrest has also evolved into a deadly rural conflict between the military and several ethnic rebel groups who have been fighting for decades for greater autonomy.
Some information for this report came from Reuters, Agence France-Presse.
