15 killed by Myanmar junta airstrikes on makeshift hospital in Sagaing Region

The junta air force bombed a hospital in Sagaing Region’s Kanbalu Township on Monday night, causing 15 deaths, according to local residents and National Unity Government (NUG) administrators. Two airstrikes occurred at around 10:30pm, with direct hits on the hospital’s main ward, according to locals, who said four people were killed immediately while 11 died later from their injuries. “There were two strikes—one at 10:20pm and another at 10:30pm, hitting the patients’ quarters. According to reports from the ground, there were many casualties including 15 deaths," NUG spokesperson Nay Phone Latt told Myanmar Now on Wednesday, citing accounts from the scene. The NUG is a cabinet formed and endorsed by elected officials ousted in Myanmar’s 2021 military coup. The targeted hospital was opened by the NUG around a year after the 2021 military coup to provide healthcare services to civilians. It also came to serve as a shelter for many civilians displaced by war. The main ward for patients was set up inside a bamboo structure with corrugated zinc roofing, while the operating theatre was housed in an adjacent brick building. "The hospital was destroyed by a direct hit,” a Kanbalu resident said. Photos taken by local people showed the hospital structure with its roof blown off and only wooden posts still standing, with bodies among the debris. The remains of some of the victims were unrecognisable, he said, and locals were still working to verify the names, ages, and other identifying details about the victims. “Some of the bodies were intact, so we know about those. As for the parts of dismembered bodies, we have to go back and sort them out. Since it hit the main building, it’s likely almost everything was destroyed,” the Kanbalu resident added. There had been no battles in the vicinity of the hospital before the bombing, he noted. “There was no (fighting on the ground) at all. They just came and bombed it deliberately. They must have had intelligence information for a long time. They came to bomb when they wanted to,” the Kanbalu resident said. “And they bombed during bad weather, at an unexpected time, to cause maximum casualties. Yesterday it was cloudy and drizzling all day.” Debris from the destroyed main ward of the NUG hospital following the (Photo- Supplied) The town of Kanbalu, where the junta’s Tank Battalion 6006 base is located, is under the control of the military and junta-trained Pyu Saw Htee “people’s militias”. Rural residents feel they cannot go into the town for medical services, local sources said. “People from our area don't dare to go to hospitals in the town. The bombed hospital was where people displaced by war from Kyunhla and Kanbalu townships took refuge after fleeing their homes,” another local man explained. “The hospital was opened during the revolutionary period. It could be said it was opened in what was thought to be a safe zone, away from the threat of the military.” Resistance forces have an active presence in the rural parts of Kanbalu Township, but it is also one of the townships with the greatest strength of junta-sponsored Pyu Saw Htee militias in Sagaing Region, overseen by prominent, pro-military Buddhist monk U Warthawa. Junta troops and Pyu Saw Htee militias continue to conduct ground offensives, arson attacks, arbitrary arrests, and killings of civilians and suspected resistance fighters in the township. Nay Phone Latt emphasised that junta attacks on civilian targets like hospitals and schools constitute human rights violations. “These are grave human rights violations and do not comply with international standards. We strongly condemn this incident. The international community must urgently find effective ways to prevent such incidents and the actions of this terrorist army,” the NUG spokesperson said. The junta also targeted a clinic in Magway Region’s Gangaw Township in March of this year, killing 11 people including Dr. Mya Soe Aung, who worked at the facility, as well as his pregnant wife Khine Hnin Wai, who was a senior nurse, and their five-year-old son. According to the NUG’s health ministry, the junta has conducted over 1,600 attacks on healthcare facilities in the four years after the coup, destroying 365 hospitals and clinics and killing 137 health service workers as of March of this year. There were also deadly junta airstrikes on Tuesday night in Kutkai Township, northern Shan State and Singu Township, Mandalay Region. Airstrikes also occurred in Sagaing Region’s Kani and Pale townships, but no casualties were reported.

15 killed by Myanmar junta airstrikes on makeshift hospital in Sagaing Region

The bombed hospital in Kanbalu Township was a refuge for displaced people and other civilians unwilling to risk seeking medical care in nearby junta-controlled areas

Subscribe for full access

Clashes for border checkpoints intensify in Myanmar’s southernmost region

The shadowy past—and present—of the Myanmar Times and Frontier

On the road to Namtu

‘Can We Go Home?’: Civilians trapped in Bhamo fighting

Subscribe for full access

Related Articles

Myanmar military to tighten digital surveillance via mandatory phone IMEI registration

Junta airstrikes kill at least seven civilians in Sagaing’s Pale Township

China-invested copper mine in Myanmar set to resume after election-period shutdown

Myanmar students face growing hurdles getting South Korea visas