Students killed in Myanmar as junta escalates air war

A Myanmar military airstrike on a school last week killed at least 19 students, an ethnic militia says, as the war-torn nation’s ruling junta steps up a campaign to retake territory ahead of a planned election in December.

Children were killed and injured at the boarding school in Kyauktaw township in Myanmar’s restive Rakhine state, the UN children’s agency UNICEF said in a statement.

It did not say how many were killed in the incident, but the Arakan Army, a militia battling the military in the western state, said at least 19, aged between 15 and 21, had died.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports, as internet and mobile services in parts of Rakhine have been cut off by the Myanmar junta and attempts to reach Kyauktaw residents were unsuccessful.

A spokesperson for the military did not answer telephone calls to seek comment.

“The attack adds to a pattern of increasingly devastating violence in Rakhine State, with children and families paying the ultimate price,” UNICEF said.

Rakhine, bordering Bangladesh, has seen intense fighting for months between the military and the Arakan Army, which seeks greater autonomy for the coastal province.

It has long been one of Myanmar’s most troubled states, where the World Food Programme has warned of rising hunger and malnutrition, including among the minority Muslim Rohingya community persecuted by successive regional administrations.

Almost 500 airstrikes launched nationwide by the military in the last month killed more than 40 children and hit 15 schools, the shadow National Unity Government said.

The military is escalating use of air power, with 1134 airstrikes between January and May, far higher than corresponding figures of 197 and 640 in 2023 and 2024, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project says.

One of Southeast Asia’s most impoverished countries, Myanmar has been gripped by violence since a 2021 military coup that ousted an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

After nationwide protests against the junta were brutally crushed, the opposition movement grew into an armed resistance against the military, which has been hammered by a combination of established ethnic armies and new outfits.

After four years of extending emergency rule, the military formed an interim government in August and pledged to hold a multi-phase election from December 28, while junta chief Min Aung Hlaing remains in charge as acting president.

The election, dismissed by some Western governments and human rights groups as a sham, is expected to be dominated by proxies of the military, as opposition groups are either barred from running or have refused to do so.

On Monday, the military-backed election commission said polling would not be held in 56 lower house constituencies and nine upper house constituencies, as conditions were not conducive, the state media Global New Light of Myanmar said.

The excluded constituencies are in rebel-controlled areas along the country’s periphery, including several townships in Kachin, Chin, Shan and Rakhine states.